Mary Lou Retton’s Daughter Recalls Saying Goodbye to Mom in ICU

Mary Lou Retton continues to recover from a life-threatening rare form of pneumonia she suffered back in October. The Olympic legend spoke about her illness on the TODAY show with Hoda Kotb on Monday with her daughter, Shayla Schrepfer, who recalled saying goodbye to her mother while she was in ICU. 

“Things just went south really, really fast,” Schrepfer said. When Retton was admitted to the ICU, Schrepfer and her two sisters were considering “taking the next step” and putting Retton on life support. “[The doctor] told me you need to get your sister [Emma Jean] here… because we don’t know if she’s going to make it through the night,” Schrepfer added. 

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Retton added, “They were saying their goodbyes to me.” But after trying one more apparatus, Retton reached an oxygen legend that prevented her from going on a ventilator. Retton’s daughters first shared the news of her illness via a fundraising site on Oct. 10, writing that she was “fighting for her life” in the ICU. Before Retton was admitted to the ICU, she was hospitalized for “a couple of days” and then sent home. 

Before Retton was sent to the hospital, she was getting her nails done with Schrepfer as they were preparing for a “girl’s trip.” They were heading to Dallas, Texas to see Emma Jean’s boyfriend play a football game. Schrepfer said her mom was saying, “I just can’t keep my eyes open. I am so tired.” Later in the evening, another one of Retton’s daughters realized something was off when her mother was saying ” things that don’t make a whole lot of sense.” The following day, Retton was supposed to meet her daughters at the game, but she never made it as she was found by a neighbor lying on the bedroom floor struggling to breathe the day after the manicure. 

Retton said the doctors are not sure what caused the pneumonia. And because of that, Schrepfer said the timeline for her mother’s recovery is not clear. “You don’t get to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “So it’s a day-by-day recovery period.”

Retton, 55, is known for winning five medals in gymnastics during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She won the gold medal for all-around, making her the first American woman to accomplish that feat.