Madonna Says She's "Lucky" to Be Alive After Health Scare

A month after Madonna was hospitalized over a severe bacterial infection, the legendary pop singer and gay icon is sharing how she’s been recovering.

“Love from family and friends is the best Medicine,” Madonna, 64, wrote on Instagram. Along with a caption about what she’s been going through since her hospitalization, she shared images of some of her kids.

She wrote that as a parent, and specifically as a mother, people can get “caught up in the needs of your children,” but “my children really showed up for me” when she became sick.

“I saw a side to them I had never seen before. It made all the difference,” Madonna added in the post.

Madonna has one daughter, Lourdes Leon, with Carlos Leon, and one son, Rocco Ritchie, with director Guy Ritchie.

She also adopted four children: David Banda, Chifundo “Mercy” James, and twins Stella and Estere.

The icon also expressed her thanks to her friend and, Guy Oseary, who gave her a Polaroid of Keith Haring “wearing a jacket with Michael Jackson’s face painted on it,” that she wrote was taken by Andy Warhol.

The gift meant a lot to Madonna, she said. “I realized how lucky I am to be alive. And how fortunate I am to have known these people and so many others who are also gone,” Madonna wrote.

In late June, Madonna was found unresponsive during an unspecified medical emergency. She was even reportedly revived through the use of Narcan, which while usually used to treat drug overdoses, can also be used to treat other illnesses, including infections. There’s no indication Madonna had suffered an overdose.

Oseary previously said she had “developed a serious bacterial infection which led to a several-day stay in the ICU.”

Madonna said she was rescheduling the start of her international “Celebration” tour to October. The Celebration tour was to begin on July 15 in Vancouver, but will now begin in Europe.

“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,” Madonna wrote in her first public message after the infection.

On Sunday, she said she was grateful to her fans for also helping her through her health scare.

“Thank you to all my angels who protected me and let me Stay to finish doing my work,” Madonna said.