Madonna thanks doctor who helped save her from ‘near-death’ experience last year

Pop icon spend days in a medically induced coma after contracting a serious bacterial infection

Madonna has opened up about just how severe her health emergency was last summer, as she thanked the doctor and other medical personnel who helped to save her life.

Performing the first of five nights at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Monday (4 March), the pop icon revealed that physician Dr David Agus, who was in the audience, helped her through the medical crisis.

Last year, the “Vogue” artist, 65, spent days in a medically induced coma after contracting a bacterial infection that resulted in her being rushed to an intensive care unit (ICU).

“It was a strange thing to finally not feel like I was in control,” Madonna said, Variety reports, as she apparently joked about how, despite suffering broken bones and having a titanium hip, “nothing can stop me.”

“This summer I had a surprise,” she said. “It’s called a near-death experience. Yes, and I’m not kidding. It was pretty scary. Obviously, I didn’t know for four days, because I was in an induced coma. But when I woke up, the first word I said was ‘No.’

“Anyway, that’s what my assistant tells me. And I’m pretty sure that God was saying to me, ‘Do you wanna come with us? You wanna come with me? You wanna go this way?’ And I said, ‘No. No.'” She emphasised: “No!”

Madonna is currently performing on her ‘Celebration’ tour (Getty)

She then shared her appreciation for “a very special man in the audience tonight”, Dr Agus, whom she said had put up with “so many entertaining phone calls from me”.

“When I was sick this summer and I literally couldn’t walk from my bed to the toilet, I would call him every other day and ask him why I didn’t have any energy,” she explained. “When was my energy gonna come back? When was I gonna feel myself again? When could I go back on tour again?

“When, when, when, when, when, when, when? And all he would say was, ‘Go outside in the sun.'”

Madonna, who is rumoured to avoid the sun due to its ageing effects on the skin, was at first reluctant to take up his advice.

But Dr Agus insisted: “You need vitamin D so your kidneys will keep working.”

Madonna had a ‘near-death’ experience last year (Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS)

“I hate the sun, but I did it anyways, and it was so hard for me to walk from my house to the backyard and sit in the sun,” Madonna said.

“I know that sounds insane, but it was difficult, and I didn’t know when I could get up again and when I could be myself again and when I would have my energy back. It was a strange thing to finally not feel like I was in control. And that was my lesson to let go.”

Madonna also addressed how she was able to get back to live performances after a brief postponement of her highly anticipated Celebration tour, for which she sings a setlist comprising her biggest hits – from “Don’t Tell Me” to “Hung Up” and “Like a Prayer”.

She was due to embark on her Celebration Tour in Canada in June 2023, when she contracted the infection and spent several days in the ICU.

Three months after being released from medical care, she resumed her global tour in Europe, in October last year.

“I passed out on my bathroom floor; I woke up in the ICU – thank you, Siobahn, she saved my life,” the Queen of Pop – referring to her Kabbalah teacher – told the crowd at one of her shows in December.

Madonna thanked her longtime manager, Guy Oseary (right) (Getty Images)

Name-checking her longtime manager, Guy Oseary (whom she joked was probably next to Dr Agus plotting how to “almost kill me again”), Madonna said she had told him she wanted to get back to the tour “in two f***ing months” after recovering.

“I swear to God, I just said it. And sometimes you just gotta say s***, put that out in the universe, and it happens. Are you with me, Los Angeles?” she asked the LA crowd.

Madonna thanked “everyone who’s here that took care of me and listened to all of my endless complaining and need for predictions that I could not have”.

“You are patient and you are kind, and you still are. You still help me take care of everybody I know that’s sick,” she said. “Thank you so much, wherever you are.”