Former Newsweek cover star and Olympic champion Mary Lou Retton opened up on almost dying from a mysterious illness.
Retton, 56, won five medals in gymnastics at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, including one gold in the all-round individual competition.
After her medal haul at the L.A. games, Retton was dubbed "America's Sweetheart," appearing on Wheaties boxes, the front cover of Newsweek and named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportswoman of the Year.
But almost 40 years after her triumphant Olympics, Retton came close to dying from what doctors believed to be "some form of rare pneumonia."
"I'm not exaggerating, I shouldn't be here," the former gymnast said in a video published to People's YouTube channel.
Retton opened up on how her family was called to rush to the hospital last year because doctors did not believe she would survive.
"So, they did. And they prayed over me. They said, 'mommy, it's ok, you can go,'" she recalled adding: "And for whatever reason, He's [God] is not ready for me. I pulled through, I don't know how."
Retton described how the doctors "still don't know what" her illness was, but she revealed she was "still stuck" with the repercussions of it, including having trouble breathing because of the scarring on her lungs.
"It'll be a lifetime," she concluded.
Newsweek contacted Retton's representatives by email for comment.
The family of the Dancing With The Stars alum made headlines in October when they started a crowdfunding campaign to pay for Retton's medical bills because she did not have insurance to pay for it. They managed to raise almost $450,000 at the time of writing.
"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," her daughter, McKenna Kelley, wrote on the fundraising page. "We ask that if you could help in any way, that 1) you PRAY! and 2) if you could help us with finances for the hospital bill."
Kelley concluded: "ANYTHING, absolutely anything, would be so helpful for my family and my mom. Thank y'all so very much!"
Retton explained she had been struggling financially after her divorce in 2018 and and the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I couldn't afford it, I couldn't afford it, I couldn't afford it," she told NBC's Today earlier this year. "But who would even know that this was going to happen to me? That's the bottom line, I couldn't afford it."
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