Madonna reveals first word she said after coming out of ‘near-death’ coma

Singer was admitted to hospital last summer with a ‘serious bacterial infection’

Madonna is sharing further details about her medical scare last summer, which left her in hospital for several days.

Last June, the 65-year-old “Like a Virgin” singer was forced to delay her Celebration Tour after she was admitted to the ICU to treat a “serious bacterial infection”.

She eventually kicked off the tour in October in London, making her way across Europe, before beginning the North American leg in New York in December.

On Monday (4 March), while performing at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, Madonna opened up about her health scare.

“This summer I had a surprise,” she told the crowd. “It’s called a near-death experience.”

She recalled: “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.’

“I’m pretty sure God was saying to me, ‘You wanna come with us? You wanna come with me, you wanna go this way?’ And I said, ‘No. No!’”

She then remembered the difficult recovery afterward, saying: “It was so hard for me to walk from my house to the backyard and sit in the sun.

“I didn’t know when I could get up again and when I could be myself again,” the Grammy-winning artist added. “It was a strange thing to finally not feel like I was in control. That was my lesson to let go.”

In the month following her release from hospital, Madonna thanked fans for their “prayers and words of healing and encouragement”.

At the time, the “Material Girl” singer also revealed: “My first thought when I woke up in the hospital was my children.”

Madonna has six children – Lourdes Leon, 27, Rocco Ritchie, 23, 18-year-old David Banda, whom she adopted in 2006, 18-year-old Chifundo “Mercy” James, whom she adopted in 2009, and 11-year-old twins Stella and Estere, whom she adopted in 2017.

Her Celebration Tour, which has previously been billed as a “one-of-a-kind experience” and features music from across her four-decade career, is nearing its conclusion. It will officially wrap in Mexico on 26 April.

During her performance in Seattle last month, Madonna dramatically tumbled off a chair mid-song after a dancer appeared to drop her. She quickly laughed it off and rolled onto her front while still holding the microphone to her mouth. The mishap left some audience members shocked, while fans online praised her for her professional response.