Mary Lou Retton Opens Up About Recovery from Rare Form of Pneumonia That Left Her in the ICU: ‘I’m a Fighter’

Mary Lou Retton may be on the mend now, but last fall she was “fighting for her life” after a battle with a rare form of pneumonia sent her to intensive care.

In her first interview since news of her health hit the headlines, the former gymnast and Olympic champion, 55, opened up about her health scare that took her and everyone around her by surprise, telling NBC News’ Hod Kotb that she hugs her every day.

“I’m not great yet, I know it’s going to be a very long road — I don’t know how long, I may need oxygen indefinitely — but you have no idea how blessed I’ve been and how grateful I am for this holiday season,” Retton said in an interview from her home in Boerne, Texas, which aired on Monday’s episode Today show.

She continued to give updates on her recovery, saying she has no plans to give up.

“I mean, when you face death in the eye? I have so much to look forward to,” Retton said. “I’m a fighter and I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to give up. I have no idea what the future holds. I don’t know if I’m going to have permanent problems with my lungs. They don’t know. I wish I had answers. But I’m never going to give up, it’s not in me.”

Retton’s on-camera comments come months after her daughters — Shayla Schrepfer, McKenna Kelley, Skyla Kelley and Emma Kelley — first shared the news of their mom’s illness with the public, noting in an Oct. 10, 2023 post that their mother is in the ICU with ” a very rare form of pneumonia.”

Schrepfer told PEOPLE at the time that her family’s priority was “our mom’s well-being.”

Doctors diagnosed her with the disease after testing for COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), determined to find out what was causing Retton’s health problems. “She was tested for everything,” Schrepfer, who sat with his mother for Today interview, Kotb said. – All negative.

“I’ve never had a lung problem in my life,” added a bemused Retton, marveling at how the X-rays were “completely white” and her lungs could not be seen.

Daughter Mary Lou Retton shares pictures from hospital as she reflects on ‘toughest year’

Mary Lou Retton in February 2017.

Robin Marchant/Getty

She first noticed she wasn’t feeling well the day before, while sitting with Schrepfer for a mother-daughter manicure to prepare for a “girls trip” to Dallas to see Emma’s boyfriend play in a football game. “I was feeling tired, but I was thinking, ‘I’m 56 this month,'” she recalled. – I didn’t run out of breath.

While Schrepfer remembered her mom saying, “I just can’t keep my eyes open. I’m so tired,” she didn’t think about it at the time. She explained that her mom is “like a little gun.” But the next morning, Retton didn’t show up for the game.

“I couldn’t. I was literally laying on my bedroom floor and I was like, ‘I can’t do this,'” she told Kotb. “I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I couldn’t breathe. You know how you want to…take a deep breath? I couldn’t do it. I still can’t!”

Mary Lou Retton at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Andy Hayt / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

Luckily, a neighbor noticed an open car door in Retton’s driveway. “She entered the house, knows my code, saw me and found me. He pretty much saved my life,” the athlete said. “I was like, I don’t know, what did she say? White, blue — I don’t even remember that. I remember them going in, but that’s about it.”

Retton was taken to a local hospital, where she was admitted and diagnosed with pneumonia. But a few days later, she was sent home. “It was a bad experience. They didn’t treat me,” Retton said, and Schrepfer added, “They didn’t take it as seriously as it was.”

At home, Retton’s health rapidly deteriorated. “Things went wrong very, very quickly,” said Schrepfer, who the next day found her mother almost unresponsive and took her to a larger hospital in a nearby town, where she was immediately admitted to intensive care.

Her pulse oximeter level, which measures the amount of oxygen circulating in the blood, was in the 70s, she said — far from the typical range of 95% to 100%.

Mary Lou Retton and daughter Shayla Schrepfer.

Shayla Kelley Schrepfer/Instagram

Retton levels continued to drop over the next week. Things got so bad that her medical team considered putting her on a ventilator for “life support” and advised Schrepfer to “prepare for the worst.”

“She told me, ‘You have to bring your sister here, because we don’t know if she’s going to make it through the night,'” Schrepfer recalled Today. “And so McKenna and I put her hands on her and we said a prayer.”

“They said goodbye to me,” said an emotional Retton.

As a last resort, with another breathing machine failing, doctors decided to pump high-flow oxygen through her nose. It helped raise her level enough that she didn’t have to go on a ventilator.

Mary Lou Retton celebrates first Christmas after health scare with photo of her four daughters

After a month in the hospital, her lungs began to heal enough for her to go home for the holidays. Retton shared her first official update on her health and ongoing recovery about a week later.

“I’m with my family as they continue to slowly recover and I’m staying very positive because I know this recovery is a long and slow process,” she posted on Instagram, adding that she hopes to one day “help others who may be facing the same battle as I.”

Since her daughters shared her story, fans have offered Retton a lot of support — something she told Kotb in her Today the interview encourages her.

I just thought I was a washed-up old athlete, but love touched me, she said. “Now that I’m alive and I’ve survived, there’s a lot more positives than negatives.”

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Today airs weekdays (starting at 7 a.m. ET) on NBC.

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