Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton has been battling severe pneumonia in a hospital intensive care unit, daughters of the famed American gymnast said.

A Tuesday post on a crowd-funding page by Retton's daughter, McKenna Kelley, characterized the Hall of Fame gymnast as being critically ill. Another daughter confirmed the illness to NBC News.

On the crowd-funding site, McKenna Kelley wrote: "My amazing mom, Mary Lou, has a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life. She is not able to breathe on her own. She’s been in the ICU for over a week now."

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Wasn't she on a Wheaties box? The first Female athlete on a Wheaties box, in fact? General Mills ought to pay back some of those cerealized profits. Heck, just republishing that box might raise enough money.

    There's a whole side issue about how screwed up our medical finance system is, but it's not gonna get solved in time to pay that bill.

    • monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Or, hear me out, we wait until she dies, republish the box in memoriam, rake in the money, drop a couple of million into a donation saying we’ll help people with pneumonia and write off the taxes and claim some publicity! It’s win-win really!

      • some General Mills Executive about to get a huge bonus probably