Madonna back home after family feared losing her in medical crisis

When Madonna was found unresponsive Saturday, rushed to the hospital and reportedly intubated in the intensive care unit, her family learned her condition was so “serious” that they feared they could lose her, a report said.

Her oldest daughter, Lourdes, flew in from Paris to be by her bedside, and she and the pop icon’s other children and relatives spent several traumatic days not sure she was going to survive what her manager said was a “serious bacterial infection,” the Daily Mail reported. Madonna’s management team also held “crisis talks” via Zoom to make the difficult decision to postpone the start of her highly anticipated Celebration World Tour, another Daily Mail report said. 

“No one really knew which direction this was going to turn, and her family was preparing for the worst,” a relative told the Daily Mail. “Everyone believed that we may lose her and that has been the reality of the situation.”

RELATED: Madonna delays tour after infection sent her to ICU

Now that the Mail and BBC report that Madonna is “back home and feeling better,” the relative also told the outlet that her collapse should be a wake-up call for the “Vogue” singer. A notorious “perfectionist,” Madonna has long believed she is “invincible,” the relative said. She also has been putting in grueling, 12-hours days rehearsing for her 43-city tour, which was due to kick off July 15 in Vancouver, Canada.

“She has not been living as healthy a life as she should be for her age, and she has been wearing herself thin over the past couple of months,” the relative told the Daily Mail. “She thinks that she is still young when, in fact, she is not. She also believes that she is invincible.”

As Madonna recovers, people around her also are banned from talking about her tour so that she can get some rest, the Daily Mail. Her family is united in wanting her to put her health first. Madonna is mother to six children: Lourdes, 26; Rocco, 22; David, 17; Mercy, 17; and 10-year-old twins Stella and Estere.

Madonna’s representatives have yet to comment on the relative’s description of her family’s concerns, the Daily Mail said.

The world learned of Madonna’s hospitalization Wednesday, via an Instagram post shared by her longtime manager Guy Oseary. He said she was postponing her 40th anniversary tour. Oseary confirmed that she had been in the ICU for several days, due to a “serious bacterial infection.”

Oseary didn’t say anything more about the nature of Madonna’s infection or its cause. People can get bacterial infections from a number of sources: food poisoning, skin, ear or sinus infections, bacterial pneumonia or some sexually transmitted diseases, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Bug bites and surgical wounds also can become infected.

Many bacterial infections are not serious and can be treated with antibiotics, the Cleveland Clinic said on its website. However, any bacterial infection that gets deep into the body, as in the blood, heart, lungs or brain, can be life-threatening, the clinic said.