Madonna has revealed she was in a "coma" due to a bacterial infection earlier this year.
Back in June, it emerged that the singer, 65, had been admitted to the intensive care unit for several days due to illness, and on Saturday, during a show in Brooklyn, New York, Madonna shared that she was in "an induced coma for 48 hours" at the time.
The Grammy winner then thanked her Kabbalah teacher, who was by her side at the hospital.
"The only voice I heard was his. I heard him say, 'Squeeze my hand,'" Madonna told the crowd, according to a fan-captured video shared on social media platform X.
Recalling her harrowing experience, Madonna credited her friend Shavawn for saving her life by rushing her to the hospital.
"There are some very important people in the room tonight that were with me at the hospital. There's one very important woman who dragged me to the hospital," she said of Shavawn in the clip. "I don't even remember; I passed out on my bathroom floor and woke up in the ICU. ... She saved my life."
Madonna also recounted her first moments upon waking up from the coma.
"There were a couple of things I thought about when I first became conscious and I saw my six incredible children sitting around me — by the way, I had to almost die to get all my kids in one room," she said, referencing Lourdes, 27; Rocco, 23; David Banda, 18; Mercy James, 17; and 11-year-old twins Estere and Stella.
The "Vogue" singer kicked off her tour in Europe earlier this year after her health scare, which her team attributed to a "serious bacterial infection." Madonna later broke her silence to give fans a health update.
"I have felt your love. I'm on the road to recovery and incredibly grateful for all the blessings in my life," she wrote in a statement on Instagram in July. "My first thought when I woke up in the hospital was my children.
"My second thought was that I did not want to [disappoint] anyone who bought tickets for my tour. I also didn't want to let down the people who worked tirelessly with me over the last few months to create my show. I hate to disappoint anyone."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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