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Mary Lou Retton not doing well

GoPokes83

By GoPokes83
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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13,530

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Hard Times said:

That's the problem I have. For you or me the no name nobody it wouldn't work. I appreciate Mattress Mack and others stepping up to help a special American Athlete. But, 1. there are I'm sure millions who have worked their ass off their whole life and have always struggled to pay bills and still can't afford health insurance and end up in a medical crisis. No one is going to step up for them and if they even tried a gofundme. If they're poor, most everyone they know is too. What's Mattress Mack doing for all of them?? 

2. Why does MLR have no insurance? She must have made some bad decisions. If she lives in Piney Point, which is what I read, she's living in a house worth at least $3mil, if not $10mil or more. Sell your house, move to Katy and live in a $500k house and have health insurance. She also has to take some responsibility for the situation she's in. And that applies to Shannon Kelley too, certainly when it comes to taking care of the kids.

Assuming she's gets better, Retton should spend her future advocating for people who cannot afford health care and are burdened with large medical bills. 

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Frank Drebin

Frank Drebin 5,670

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On 10/20/2023 at 11:05 PM, Smax said:
On 10/18/2023 at 1:09 PM, Nice Guy Eddie said:
Assuming she's gets better, Retton should spend her future advocating for people who cannot afford health care and are burdened with large medical bills. 

Won't happen, she's maga

You fucks just can't help yourself.

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Saint Tacky

Saint Tacky 1,622

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We were discussing Halloween memories over the weekend and were reminded that MLR's kids would always show up to trick-or-treat on our block when they were young because Shannon Kelley's parents lived down the street. One year - 2003> - one of the daughters dressed as a gymnast complete with her mom's Olympic medals around her neck. The medals were cool, but the odd part was Mary Lou standing back on the sidewalk with a giant floppy hat pulled down low to hide her face. It was as conspicuous an attempt at remaining inconspicuous as you can imagine. 

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texasdago

texasdago 7,589

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Posted
On 10/18/2023 at 1:00 PM, Hard Times said:

If she lives in Piney Point, which is what I read

That's what I've always thought... lives in Piney Point, active at SBC... its not like she's living in Michael Pollock's Colonial House and hawking roses at the corner of Hillcroft and Westheimer  

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105,478

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41 minutes ago, texasdago said:

its not like she's living in Michael Pollock's Colonial House

Man.....just last week, we had to make a quick trip to Houston to sit shiva with some friends, and to avoid traffic, our route took us down Renwick across Gulfton.  A LOT of childhood memories in that area, and then we drove by Colonial House, I hollered the name, and my wife and I couldn't stop laughing.  That free VCR soaked in pool water was a DEAL-CLOSER.

 

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tx 3 putt

tx 3 putt 77,650

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12 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Man.....just last week, we had to make a quick trip to Houston to sit shiva with some friends, and to avoid traffic, our route took us down Renwick across Gulfton.  A LOT of childhood memories in that area, and then we drove by Colonial House, I hollered the name, and my wife and I couldn't stop laughing.  That free VCR soaked in pool water was a DEAL-CLOSER.

 

 

micheal pollock has pussy slayer written all over him 

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Wally Fairway

Wally Fairway 5,596

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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Man.....just last week, we had to make a quick trip to Houston to sit shiva with some friends, and to avoid traffic, our route took us down Renwick across Gulfton.  A LOT of childhood memories in that area, and then we drove by Colonial House, I hollered the name, and my wife and I couldn't stop laughing.  That free VCR soaked in pool water was a DEAL-CLOSER.

 

LOL - those were bad back in the day; if you liked the area 5401 Chimney Rock was the place to be.
(raise your hand if you are a former 5401 resident, jump up an yell if you live there currently) 🙋‍♂️

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shadow_operative2.0

shadow_operative2.0 16,046

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She's alive. 

Quote

Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton is home from hospital and "in recovery mode," her daughter said on Monday, after a rare form of pneumonia left the former gymnast fighting for her life.

Retton, 55, has spent nearly two weeks in an intensive care unit where she was unable to breathe on her own.

"We still have a long road of recovery ahead of us, but baby steps," McKenna Lane Kelley, who is one of Retton's four daughters, said in a post on social media.

"We are overwhelmed with the love and support from everyone. Grateful doesn't scrape the surface of the posture of our hearts."

Nicknamed "America's Sweetheart," Retton's gold medal-winning performance at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles captured the imagination of U.S. fans and her hospitalization has prompted an outpouring of support.

A fundraising page set up by the family to help cover Retton's hospital bills was approaching $460,000 in donations on Monday. The family previously revealed that Retton is uninsured.

"Thank you Jesus, thank you doctors & nurses, thank you to this loving community of support," Kelley said. 

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13,530

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4 hours ago, BamaATL said:

So just a question here, but is this rare "pneumonia" code for Covid?  

I was wondering the same. Impossible to know but I imagine that someone schooled in PR would advise a client to not mentioning COVID when requesting assistance. COVID is a touchy subject for some people and could distract from the goal.

Once again, I have no insight into the cause of her illness.

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Deej

Deej 77,003

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15 hours ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

"Thank you Jesus, thank you doctors & nurses, thank you to this loving community of support," Kelley said.

"But we will not be passing on any of the almost half a million in free money we got from strangers to them as a thank you."

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Gil Bang

Gil Bang 26,069

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A report this week is likely to add to questions about Mary Lou Retton’s claim that she couldn’t “afford” health insurance — a situation that prompted her daughters to launch an online fundraising campaign that netted more than $459,000 and was supposed to cover the costs of her monthlong hospital stay for a rare and potentially deadly form of pneumonia.

The Daily Mail obtained court records, which show that the decorated Olympic gymnast received $2 million in her 2018 divorce settlement and was poised to potentially earn $2 million more in compensation over a legal dispute with the manufacturer of her two metal hip replacements.

In early January, Retton spoke out on the “Today” show about her month-long hospitalization, dramatically describing how she almost didn’t survive a terrifying medical crisis. Wearing an oxygen tube, the woman once dubbed “America’s sweetheart” detailed the moment in the intensive care unit when “they were about to put me on life support.”

When Retton’s daughters first revealed her medical crisis in October, they said that their 55-year-old mother was in the hospital with a “very rare form of pneumonia” and “fighting for her life.” Her daughter, McKenna Kelley, also said that the 1984 Olympics gold medalist didn’t have health insurance but wouldn’t say anything more, “out of respect for her and her privacy.”

The fundraiser initially set a goal for $50,000 but raised nearly 10 times that. More than 8,000 people donated, including Texas philanthropist and multimillionaire Linda Mcingvale, who alone sent in $50,000. Many people were shocked by the idea that an American sports legend, who presumably earned millions in endorsement deals over a decades-long career, didn’t heave health insurance and needed to ask fans for help.

During Retton’s “Today” interview, she told Hoda Kotb that insurance was simply too expensive for her, as a recently divorced woman with pre-existing health conditions.

“When COVID hit and after my divorce and all my pre-existing (conditions) — I mean, I’ve had over 30 operations of orthopedic stuff — I couldn’t afford it… That’s the bottom line: I couldn’t afford it,” Retton told Kotb.

“But who would even know that this was going to happen to me?” Retton exclaimed before confirming that she now has health insurance: “I’m all set now.”

In an interview with USA Today, Kelley repeated her mother’s contention that she couldn’t afford insurance before her health care crisis, because of her surgeries, which Kelley said included four hip replacements that have left her mother in chronic pain.

“Due to her medical history and the amount of surgeries she has endured from gymnastics and just life, it’s unaffordable for her,” Kelley said.

But following Retton’s “Today” interview, journalists raised a number of questions. They also alleged that Retton and her daughters did not respond to questions about her medical care and financial situation, including her income, which Texas hospital treated her and what happened to the $459,000 in online donations.

“Retton’s unwillingness to answer the most basic questions about her health care is receiving increased scrutiny for one simple reason: the decision by McKenna Kelley and her three sisters to seek public donations for their mother on the crowdsourcing site spotfund.com,” wrote USA Today columnist Christine Brennan. “Had they not done that, Retton’s illness likely would have remained a private matter, never bursting into public view and enticing so many strangers to send money.”

Retton’s explanation about pre-existing conditions and insurance costs definitely sparked “some mental gymnastics,” according to a report by KFF Health News, which was published by National Public Radio.

KFF Health News senior correspondent Julie Appleby agreed that Retton’s lack of health insurance was “shocking.” But she also raised questions about Retton’s two main reasons for not buying coverage — pre-existing conditions and cost.

Appleby said that Retton could have purchased insurance through Obamacare. Under the Affordable Care Act, which has offered coverage through state and federal marketplaces since 2014, insurers are barred from rejecting people with pre-existing conditions and cannot charge higher premiums for them, either, Appleby reported. “This is one of the law’s most popular provisions, according to opinion surveys,” Appleby said.

Appleby also reported that for people with higher incomes, premium costs are capped at 8.5% of household income.

According to the Daily Mail report, court documents filed in Houston show that Retton had “a small fortune” following her divorce from real estate developer Shannon Kelley, who once played quarterback for the Texas Longhorns.

Under the property division accepted by the court, Retton received cash and property worth $1,950,597, as she and Kelley split their assets down the middle after 28 years of marriage.

Not included in that figure were the proceeds from the sale of two houses, one in Houston and the other in Fairmont, West Virginia. Proceeds from the home sales were supposed to be split 50/50. The Daily Mail reported that the Houston home was sold for $800,000, while the West Virginia property — described as a “country home” — sold for $575,000.

The Daily Mail also reported that Retton was expected to receive additional funds from a lawsuit in which she sued Biomet, an Indiana-based medical company, over two hip replacements that went wrong.

Retton was fitted with metal hip replacements in 2005 and 2011. She was then paid an undisclosed sum to participate in a marketing campaign to promote the products from 2006 and 2013, the Daily Mail reported.

But Retton filed suit against Biomet in 2016. She alleged that the implants were plagued with defects that left patients in pain. She also said she needed to undergo high-risk surgery to remove the devices.

In a related issue, Retton refused to sit for depositions for two people from Washington State who also sued Biomet after receiving allegedly faulty hip implants, the Daily Mail reported. Retton slammed the request as “annoying” and said that testifying about her personal information could hurt “my public image and my brand” and interfere with her ability to earn income from “sponsorships, public appearances, and/or literary rights.”

In 2019, Retton reached an out-of-court settlement with Biomet. While the sum wasn’t disclosed, the Daily Mail reported that two other plaintiffs who sued Biomet under similar circumstances each received $2 million in settlements.

According to the terms of her divorce, Retton was allowed to keep at least 80% of any settlement with Biomet, including if she was awarded more than $2 million, while her husband was limited to 20%, the Daily Mail reported. Her husband wouldn’t get anything at all if she received less than $200,000.

On the issue of Retton’s lack of health insurance, Kelley told USA Today said that her mother was about to purchase coverage “but didn’t, and then she got sick.” Appleby said it’s hard to know how Retton fell between the cracks of health insurance coverage, given that neither she nor her daughters have offered any details about if or how she shopped for coverage. Appleby said that neither Retton nor her daughters could be reached for comment.

As for the spotfund.com donations, Brennan said that neither Retton nor Kelley responded to phone  or text messages from USA Today about whether the donations helped pay for her health insurance.

Brennan also said Kelly would not comment on how much of the nearly half-million dollars in donations had been spent on medical costs. Kelley only said that “all remaining funds” would go to a charity of her mother’s choice, but she offered no timetable or further information, Brennan said.

 

 
 
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YGIFS

YGIFS 19,453

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Somebody needs to create a new catch-all meme for fundraising scams. Whereby the person is asked who taught them how to do it and they scream back, “you, alright!  I learned it by watching you!”  
 

all this free information and we’re somehow stupider than we used to be.  

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31,646

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Truth is, though, that two or four mil probably ain't going far.  You know she has a million-dollar-plus house and a good chunk in cars, too.

If an employer ain't footing most of the bill, that shit's expensive.  So, she probably didn't have health insurance.  But it was mostly a matter of choice.

Still grifty.

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YGIFS

YGIFS 19,453

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Posted (edited)

I think most of us are for capitalism and opposed to mediocre, socialized health care.  But if you spend your growing years being launched into the air at high speeds.  And then later on  in life, got two metallic hips—-I’d probably drop the political charade and get a house with one less walk-in closet in order to afford a half-ass decent insurance plan.  Just a thought Mary Lou.  then again, there’s never been a better time to separate stupid Americans from their money so I guess, grift on grifting on sista’

Edited by YGIFS
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Hard Times

Hard Times 302

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I've always said the numbers just don't add up. Not being able to afford insurance with the ACA act in place when most middle class Americans can just doesn't fly for someone with the $ she has received from her divorce and endorsements. Linda MCV should be pissed, but she shouldn't be dumb enough to part with her $ so quickly.

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