{"id":3621,"date":"2023-10-23T22:40:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T20:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/?p=3621"},"modified":"2023-10-23T22:40:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T20:40:08","slug":"daughter-of-us-hero-mary-lou-retton-gives-icu-update-after-4-days-and-it-confirms-what-we-all-feared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/?p=3621","title":{"rendered":"Daughter of US hero Mary Lou Retton gives ICU update after 4 days \u2013 and it confirms what we all feared"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary Lou Retton remains in hospital fighting a \u201cvery rare form\u201d of pneumonia, and though reports last week suggested she might be on the mend, she\u2019s apparently suffered a \u201cscary setback\u201d.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to the former Olympic star\u2019s daughter, Shayla Kelley Schrepfer, who gave her first update in four days prior to the weekend.<\/p>\n

Retton is widely regarded as one of the most iconic US athletes to have ever competed in Olympic gymnastics, having taken gold in the individual all-around competition at the 1984 games in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Yet earlier this month alarming reports revealed that the 55-year-old was \u201cfighting for her life\u201d in intensive care as she battles a rare form of pneumonia.<\/p>\n

Retton\u2019s family broke the troubling news, insisting that the ex-gymnast was \u201cnot able to breathe on her own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then followed a more positive update given by one of Retton\u2019s four daughters, Shayla Kelley Schrepfer, who said her mother was making \u201cremarkable\u201d progress.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMr. T and Mary Lou Retton host a food drive to benefit \u2018Food For Survival\u2019 at Planet Hollywood in Times Square, New York City. 03\/21\/2001. Photo: Evan Agostini \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cPrayers have been felt and have been answered,\u201d Shayla wrote in an Instagram post.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough she remains in the ICU, her path to recovery is steadily unfolding. Her fighting spirit is truly shining!<\/p>\n

\u201cHer breathing is becoming stronger, and her reliance on machines is diminishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a fundraising page set up by Retton\u2019s family to pay for medical bills had amassed more than a whopping $400,000 in donations last weekend.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nLOS ANGELES \u2013 AUGUST 1984: Mary Lou Retton of the USA waves to the crowd during the Women\u2019s Gymnastics competition of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games held from July 30 to August 3, 1984 at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Madison\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

However, a more troubling update offered by Shayla last week suggests that Retton is not quite out of the woods just yet.<\/p>\n

As per Fox, Shayla again took to Instagram to inform followers about her mother\u2019s condition, but it wasn\u2019t such good news this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically at the beginning of this week, we were going on the up and up,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWe were so excited seeing so much progress. And then yesterday, we had a pretty scary setback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she didn\u2019t elaborate on what the \u201csetback\u201d was, a day later, Shayla added: \u201cShe is still in ICU. And we\u2019re just working through some things as far as her setback goes. So I just wanted to give an update there. She had a better day today, which is great. She is just really, really exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retton rose to national prominence through her feats at the 1984 Olympic Games, going on to appear in several films and TV shows throughout the 1980s and \u201990s. She was also recognized as Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated in \u201984.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary Lou Retton remains in hospital fighting a \u201cvery rare form\u201d of pneumonia, and though reports last week suggested she might be on the mend, she\u2019s apparently suffered a \u201cscary setback\u201d. That\u2019s according to the former Olympic star\u2019s daughter, Shayla Kelley Schrepfer, who gave her first update in four days prior to the weekend. Retton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3624,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621\/revisions\/3624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}