Demi Lovato’s Mother Recalls Horrific Moment She Learned of Singer’s OD
Demi Lovato's mother has opened up about the horrific moment on July 24 that she learned her daughter had overdosed and nearly died.
In an interview with Newsmax TV (Lovato gave permission for the chat), Dianna De La Garza said she's still physically affected by the memory of July 24: the day that nearly took her daughter's life.
“It’s still a really difficult thing to talk about. I literally start to shake a little bit when I start to remember what happened that day,” she said before explaining how she learned that her daughter had overdosed.
“I was actually looking at my phone and all these texts started coming in," she said, noting that messages included sentiments like: “I just heard the news, I’m so sorry, I’m praying for your family, I’m praying for Demi."
"I was in shock. I thought, what is going on? My heart just dropped," she said.
That's when she got a phone call from Lovato's assistant, Kelsey, who was nervously rambling.
" I stopped her and said, ‘Kelsey, just tell me what’s going on.’ The next words that came out of her mouth were words...that are so difficult to hear as a parent,” De La Garza said. “She said Demi overdosed. So I was in shock, I didn’t know what to say. It was something I never, ever expected to hear as a parent about any of my kids. I said, ‘Is she OK?’ And she stopped for a second and she said, ‘She’s conscious, but she’s not talking.’ I knew at that point that we were in trouble.”
De La Garza and her other daughters rushed to the hospital, where they said they saw Lovato who, "didn't look good at all.
“She was in bad shape, but I said to her, ‘Demi, I’m here. I love you.’ At that point, she said back to me, ‘I love you too,’" De La Garza said. "From that point on, I never allowed myself to ever think that things weren’t going to be OK.”
And that wasn't even the worst of it — De La Garza said she spent subsequent days not even sure that Lovato would survive.
“We just didn’t know for two days if she was going to make it or not,” De La Garza said. “I was very concerned, and I was trying to be strong for her and for her sisters and for my family back home...I just feel like the reason she’s alive today is because of the millions of prayers that went up that day.”
And of Lovato's doctors, De La Garza said: “I couldn’t have asked for a better team of people to save her life.”
Now, finally, De La Garza said her daughter — who has since entered rehab and sought out treatment — is on the upswing.
“I can honestly say today that she is doing really well,” she said. “She’s happy, she’s healthy, she’s working on her sobriety, and she’s getting the help she needs. That in itself encourages me about her future and the future of our family.”