As text messages bombarded her phone like bees to a hive, singer Demi Lovato’s mom said a panic quickly overtook her body. Before long, Lovato’s assistant was calling her to let he know her famous daughter had overdosed.
Moments after she got off the phone, Lovato’s mom, Dianna De La Garza, and Lovato’s older sister, Dallas, drove to the Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where the “Sober” singer was in “critical condition” and remained so for the next two days.
“So, I was in shock. I didn’t know what to say,” De La Garza said Tuesday during an interview on Newsmax TV. “It was just something that I never, ever expected to hear, as a parent, about any of my kids.”
When she found out her daughter was conscious but not speaking, De La Garza said, “I knew at that point that we were in trouble.” She recalled Lovato being “in bad shape,” but when she arrived at the hospital, the performer’s mom said, “‘Demi, I’m here. I love you.’ And at that point she said back to me, ‘I love you, too.’”
The overdose happened in July. Now, Lovato is “happy” and “healthy.”
“She’s working on her sobriety, and she’s getting the help she needs,” De La Garza said. “That, in itself, encourages me about her future and about the future of our family.”
In early August, Lovato broke her silence in an Instagram post. She told her followers she is grateful to God for keeping her “alive and well” throughout the entire ordeal. The experience, she admitted, has taught her that her struggle with drugs and addiction “is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet.”
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De La Garza credits prayer for her daughter’s survival.
“I just feel like the reason she’s alive today is because of the millions of prayers that went up that day when everybody found out what was happening,” she said. “I don’t think she would be here if it hadn’t been for those prayers.”
Lovato’s mother has made it her life mission to raise awareness about the opioid crisis currently plaguing the country, working as an advocate toward healing and recovery.