Demi Lovato has been extremely sick and is still in hospital after her overdose

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Demi Lovato is still in the hospital over a week after her overdose. Sources claim that she’s had a very high fever and is experiencing nausea and vomiting. Apparently these symptoms are common after an overdose, especially when the patient is going through withdrawal from an opiate or benzodiazepine. ET Online spoke to a doctor who explained what she may be experiencing.

A source tells ET that the singer is “experiencing nausea and fever,” six days after suffering an apparent drug overdose, adding, “she is under the care of medical professionals and is expected to recover…”

A source told ET that Lovato was “still in the hospital and working on getting better and recovering” after being rushed to the hospital last Tuesday. Addiction expert Dr. Howard Samuels sat down with ET on Monday to offer some insight on the 25-year-old singer’s ongoing hospitalization.

“We don’t know exactly [which] drugs Demi was using, but for her to be in the hospital for six days sort of suggests to me that they’re detoxing her off of an an opiate or a benzo[diazepine], such as Xanax or Valium, and they didn’t want to release her until she’s gotten these drugs out of her system,” Samuels explained.

[From Entertainment Tonight]

TMZ is reporting that Demi needs to get well before they consider rehab options for her or approach her with the idea. A source tells them that “We just don’t know where her head is at” in regard to going. We previously heard that her people were looking into facilities outside LA, presumably to get her away from “people, places and things,” an AA saying for making sure you’re not in the same situation with the same people who enabled your drinking/drugging. Since she’s still sick in the hospital and it’s unknown how long she’ll be there, it’s also unknown when or if she’ll seek further treatment. The good news is that Demi has people who care about her around her and that she’s getting the best care. I hope she gets better soon and knows that she has support in her recovery.

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photos credit: WENN, Getty and Zuma/Avalon.red


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48 Responses to “Demi Lovato has been extremely sick and is still in hospital after her overdose”

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  1. broodytrudy says:

    I hope it’s withdrawals and not an infection. I’ve known too many people who have gotten ill or died from aspiration and infection after an overdose. In my experience, if it was withdrawals and she had agreed to go to treatment, they would have transferred her to let her sit them out there. I hope she gets the help she needs.

    • KNy says:

      I was wondering if it was aspiration as well.

    • CleaK says:

      My guess is that the withdrawal concern is probably pretty accurate. I was just talking to my uncle, who is a Dr, about narcan and he says it is just a bitch. It will automatically put you into withdrawals. Most people when they wake up from an overdose that has been reversed by Narcan, feel really awful because of the instant and intense withdrawals. My guess is that is what is happening.

      • SlightlyAnonny says:

        @CleaK. This is actually why I had no problems with Wilmer being there. She is probably going through a painful physical withdrawal. Whatever emotional crutch she needs to get through the crisis, let her have it. Sort the emotions in rehab, get through the physical now.

    • ChillyWilly says:

      It is possible to die during opiate AND benzo withdrawal. It’s best to go through them in a hospital setting. Unfortunately only rich people like Demi are afforded that “luxury” in the good ole US of A.

      • eileen says:

        I am a physician and most, if not all of my patients in opiate/alcohol etc withdrawal in the hospital, do not have insurance and will never pay for their care in the good ole USA. Everyone realizes everyone that comes to the ED that needs care, gets care right?
        Where are you getting your information? Sources?

      • Maite says:

        I respectfully disagree. I was hospitalized in February to safely withdraw from benzos, and I am definitely NOT rich. Thank God for Blue Cross Blue Shield.

  2. Patricia says:

    Scary. I wish all addicts could have this much care after an overdose though. I’m glad she’s in the right place and being cared for properly, and then hopefully on her way to a long rehab.
    Opioids are such a scourge. A friend of mine just lost her brother, and her father died last year of an overdose. In Philly we just had a massive overdose event due to a bad batch of heroin. It never seems to end and it’s terrifying and so sad. Like I said, I wish every addict could receive lots and lots of care like this.
    Our society is rotting with drugs.

    • CityGirl says:

      And alcoholism

      • gf says:

        This^ only rich people (or someone with amazing health insurance) can stay in the hospital to detox for more than 7 days. Hospitals will literally push you out after your insurance dictates when it is time to go (which is basically when they are done paying). I recently attended rehab, and saw many MANY patients that were kicked out of rehab because their insurance refused to pay.

        This is sickening and sad. I do wish her the best though. She has access to all the best care.

  3. Barrett says:

    Agreed. I have a family member who won’t get care.

  4. fortune100 says:

    I really feel for her. So many of these drugs come across our border illegally, wish they could shut off that pipeline. And doctors need to stop prescribing so many addictive painkillers.

    • damejudi says:

      Agree with the problem with prescribing addictive painkillers. About a year ago, I had a laparoscopic appendectomy. Post-surgery while still in-patient, I took no pain meds b/c I didn’t need them. At discharge, the LPN gave me an Rx for Norco-no explanation, just “fill this so you have it for pain.” I have a family member who is addicted to Norco, so I just nodded and never filled it.

      I didn’t need the Norco-a few Advil after I got home were all I needed to manage my (very minor) pain/discomfort. But there was no conversation about starting with something more benign to manage pain.

      It’s a very slippery slope, and I understand how addictions start when people take highly addictive pain meds “because my Dr. prescribed them for pain.” More education needs to happen from healthcare professionals to patients.

      • HelloSunshine says:

        Had this issue after I had my son. Had an emergency c section and the hospital kept pushing Percocet on me. Addiction issues run in my family and I basically don’t feel any difference between prescription pain and ibuprofen but they insisted I take it right after. I told them after two doses I didn’t want it and to please just trust I know my own body. I was totally fine with just ibuprofen, was able to get up and walk and function the next day just on that.

        The US health system is broken in many ways and this is one of the big reasons. Doctors are creating addicts everyday, whether they think they are or not. And now that they’re cracking down, they’re harming people with chronic pain who are not addicted but need the medicine to be able to live a normal life.

      • CEL2495 says:

        @Fortune100 , agree with your comment. I had severe back pain about two months ago and came to found out I have a problem with my S1. I was held for a few hours while routinary test were being conducted. I was in severe pain but holding up, a nurse came prepare to put something in my IV, I asked her what’s that?! Alarmed, she told me is morphine for the pain. I told her I don’t want it. She stil proceeded to put it. My reaction was immediate, my heart shot up and I felt super hot and it really scared me. I was numb after it for like 10mins. She told me she put it because I was in pain and i don’t look like an addict. What?! I kid you not, it’s scary. I was given a dose of morphine because “ I don’t look like an addict”. I’m not an addict but that’s a scary assumption as many really don’t. A friend of mine who was a well to do lawyer died of an overdose last year after battling a raging cocaine addition for many years… she did not “looked like an addict”. Another friend felt into a coma a year ago after overdosing on prescription medicine. It’s really scary and addition is a beast. I wish Demi the best and hope she gets better and fights for her life.

      • anony83 says:

        I get this, but I just wish people would keep people with legitimate chronic pain in their thoughts when talking about the opioid epidemic. The crackdown on prescriptions for legit patients means more and more of us (I have a serious chronic illness that causes chronic pain) are being denied medication we really, really need to be “functional members of society”. And yet, all those new regulations does little or nothing to help people who are currently addicted and using illegal drugs.

        Just another perspective to keep in mind.

      • themummy says:

        I have had the very opposite experience. I don’t know why people always say opiate prescriptions are rampant and handed out like candy. I had an emergency c-section with a seriously botched incision and was prescribed no pain meds, broke 4 ribs and dislocated my shoulder and got NO prescription for pain meds, and had all four wisdom teeth extracted at one time with one of them being abscessed and was prescribed NO pain meds. When I broke my foot–no pain meds. Tonsils out–no pain med prescription. I once had a kidney infection so bad I was peeing pure blood and it hurt SO bad…and I did get a morphine dose in the ER, but after that–no prescription for any pain meds. I took motrin and gritted my teeth through it.

        I have literally never been prescribed pain meds–ever–and I have had some major surgeries and other issues. I have no history of use of any drugs and no family history of addiction or drug use/abuse. I don’t know where people are getting all of these opiates so easily.

      • Erinn says:

        @anony83
        “I get this, but I just wish people would keep people with legitimate chronic pain in their thoughts when talking about the opioid epidemic. ”
        I love you for this. I am dealing with chronic pain as well, and it always makes me nervous where crackdowns are concerned. I deal with pain daily – and have on a couple of occasions needed opioids, but luckily only briefly so far. I just wish people who don’t really need them wouldn’t panic take them. I fully understand the fear of pain being a ruling factor in some people’s lives- I’m constantly set back from enjoying events because of fear of pain. But there definitely are things that can be managed with OTC meds that people skip to prescription for.

        themummy – I understand your take too. Before I was dealing with the chronic pain, I’d broken my arm as a kid. They misread my x-ray and said I just bruised it really bad and to go home and take Tylenol. At 11 I was dealing with broken bones and just the occasional children’s tylenol. I popped a bone out of my wrist at 17. Different hospital, different Drs, still misread my x-ray. Go home and take an advil – you’re over reacting. Bone was actually dislocated and had to be manipulated into place twice in a short period of time. I’ve had to go to the ER with kidney stones 3 different times. I’d wait to go in until it was unbearable – and it was usually some time before getting morphine for this, but I was always given a small prescription of prescription pain killers to take at home because I never passed them while in the hospital. I took them as I needed them, stretching the time out between doses as much as possible. For me – the pain killers made me sick to my stomach so I’d have to amp myself up to take them. I had all 4 wisdom teeth removed at the same time, and I think they gave me Tylenol 3. Also made me sick to my stomach for the most part. But not all the pain pills I’m given have a high level of addiction, either. Anti inflammatory drugs often will do the trick for short term pain that isn’t severe.

        Some of the problem is there’s a major difference between pain tolerance and pain threshold. I don’t have a large threshold (because of my chronic pain condition) before I feel pain. But I have a great pain tolerance. I function most days incredibly well despite the amount of pain I’m in. I’ll work through horrible migraines that OTC drugs do absolutely nothing for – but other people will have to go home and do absolutely nothing when they have them. Which absolutely makes it harder to manage who needs opioids and who doesn’t.

      • Georgia says:

        American doctors are incentivized to write certain prescriptions. People’s experiences with receiving scripts asked for or not have more to with the doctor than the patient. Love and Other Drugs the movie with Jake Gyllenhal was about Viagra but the same idea applies even to narcotic prescriptions.

      • Jillie says:

        ANONY83
        Same. I have scoliosis and severe sciatica. I’m in high levels of pain every day. My neck will hurt so bad I wake up every hour or less when I’m trying to sleep. I’m in pain from my neck to foot from the scoliosis and sciatica. And I can’t get anything. My previous doctor was amazing, he would prescribe me Percocet and a mild muscle relaxer as needed and that was the only thing that helped. I did months of physical therapy that did nothing but cost me money. Unfortunately I moved so I am trying to find a new doctor that will take me seriously, but so far no luck. I can’t even get a mild muscle relaxers. It’s horrible.

      • whitecat says:

        Same thing happened with me! I grow up in a country that had socialized healthcare, but when I was studying in the US, I had an appendectomy. I was prescribed Oxycodone and I only took it for a week, hated it, and didn’t want to use it again. When I went back to the follow up, the doctor tried to prescribe me another Oxycodone prescribsion and I tried to explain to her that I don’t need it, I don’t feel good about it and I can handle it without. But she kept asking if I was ‘sure’?

        I was really shocked because why are doctors behaving like drug dealers???!

      • eileen says:

        Because physicians were penalized by not treating pain in the 90s. HUGE push to treat “pain” as the “fifth” vital sign (oxymoron). Physicians graded BY PATIENTS how well they treated pain.
        Please do your research.

        Try to walk a day in our shoes before judging – I automatically think everyone is pain seeker. Times have changed.

      • Dazeem, Adele says:

        @Georgia: Respectfully, HELL NO.
        ‘love and other drugs’ is a fictionalized movie and is 100 percent inaccurate. I’m not even going to diginifiy this ridiculous claim with further comment.

    • lara says:

      Is thee a reason why so many opioids are pescribed in the US? I was shocked how often they are perscribed. When I went to a US doctor due to backpain on a businesses trip, I expected maybe ibuprofen or a cortison injektion not an opiod prescription. The only time I became opiods in germany after I broke a vertebra in a riding accident. And then only 2 days in the hospital with a long lecture how addictiv it is and that I could only get it as IV in as long as I stay in the hospital and the pain is unbearable and I would have to make it with ibu at home and basically toughten it out.

    • RedOnTheHead says:

      HelloSunshine, the last sentence of your post is something that doesn’t get talked about often enough. I injured my lower back 4 years ago and the injury isn’t yet able to be treated surgically. It will eventually require surgery as it progresses, but the nature of the injury is such that it progresses fairly slowly. As it continues to degrade I go through cycles of eyeball popping pain. Those pain cycles can last from a week to a month at a time. And then I will be fine for a few months before it starts all over again. I get a 30 day Norco script once or twice a year and that is usually enough to manage. All of my doctors are hard core about NOT prescribing opioids unless absolutely necessary. Thankfully, my neurosurgeon thoroughly understands this pain and will give me the script when I need it. But since I only do it a couple of times a year he’s ok with it.

      I have enormous sympathy for people who have become addicted to opioids because of real pain and haven’t found another way to manage. But my patience is wearing thin with people who use prescription drugs recreationally. For those of us that have to manage severe pain, it’s a real problem. It gets harder to get painkillers, and when you need them you just need them. And when you’re in the kind of continuous, unrelenting pain that brings tears to your eyes, makes you unable to sleep or eat, and so forth trust me; you begin to not give a crap about the issues surrounding opioids. You just want relief. Any relief.

      I don’t pretend to have the answers but I do know that treating everyone as an addict is not it.

      • Lizabeth says:

        I agree @Redonthehead–We need to get a better handle on who actually needs opiate medications. I am also concerned about people who experience chronic pain and people who experience severe acute pain. OTT drugs often aren’t effective in those situations and can have harmful effects. For example, a family member experienced severe gastritis after being advised (by a doctor) to take Ibuprofen around the clock for two weeks following a bad injury. The gastroenterologist she later saw through the ER said because of all the gastric problems caused by ibuprofen he’s seen he believes it should either by taken off the market or be prescription-only. Continuous use of Tylenol for pain control can cause permanent liver damage leading to the need for a transplant (or death.) And aspirin can cause bleeding and kidney problems, some quite dangerous. So the answer isn’t to “just stop” prescribing opiates or to assume everyone is an addict.

  5. TassieGirl says:

    The American health system is a complete nightmare. The people in countries with universal healthcare can’t believe the Americans can’t sort their shit out when it comes to looking after its own citizens.

    There’s a lot wrong with Australia at the moment but thank f*ck we still have our Medicare. My brother is very very sick at the moment and has had to undergo emergency surgery and at the end they’ll scan his Medicare card and off he’ll go having received top shelf care for the princely sum of absolutely nada.

    Demi is lucky she is receiving such good care…unlike other Americans who are not so fortunate 🙁

    • OriginalLala says:

      I hear ya – we got our own issues in Canada, but our universal healthcare is the reason my mom is still alive today.

    • Rachel Phelps says:

      We pay $1300/mo. for our health insurance for the honor of having a $4200/year deductible. My daughter busted her forehead open about a month ago and we are on the hook for approx. $3,000. We are not rich and live paycheck-to-paycheck. (Don’t even get me started on my husband’s student loans too). Such a ridiculous situation all-around.

    • Mrs. Bad Bob says:

      Our government was hijacked by lobbyists from Big Pharma and insurance companies, they and others have undermined all efforts to reform our healthcare system. It’s all about corporate profits and milking the American people for every penny they’ve got. The government, the FDA, is supposed to protect us from dangerous prescription drugs and they don’t bother, they just rush through prescriptions for profit, and recall them and ban them when they discover how deadly they really are. Reform seems impossible in the face of corporate greed and their stranglehold on our system of government. Much like our prison system, profit has to be removed from the equation for true reform and progress to occur.

      • What's Inside says:

        You are so right about how we are all being held hostage by lobbyists who push their agenda and get government to underwrite Big Pharma and insurance companies, as well as other companies who have much to gain from an unaware public.

    • eileen says:

      We have medicare too.
      Some people don’t take the time to fill out the forms

  6. laulau says:

    I’ve been clean for 10 years and know how much mental health issues can play into relapsing. It’s so rough to get through. I had to move to a place I didn’t know anyone to completely start over and that made the difference for me. I am still holding resentment towards a (former) doctor who told my 18 year old self that Vicodin was not addictive…

    good luck to Demi and those who love her.

  7. SJhere says:

    In the 60-70’s it was just called “dope sick”.
    Lots of serious complications can occur after an overdose. Why people seem to think that it’s either overdose = live or die quickly. Not at all.
    She could still be in hospital for some time yet.

    I agree that this country needs to over haul the health care system. So many are in need.
    Trump is an idiot in all ways.

  8. Elena says:

    Benzos and narcs should NEVER be mixed, they should never be taken together. We are not allowed to give them together in the hospital. I hope she pulls through.

  9. Steph says:

    I saw a lot of articles calling it ‘complications’ over the last few days but as soon as i saw the symptoms I said withdrawal. As serious as withdrawal symptoms can be, it is the normal course and complications is just the wrong word. Her camp could have used it as a teaching moment. I also saw that ‘a source’ said she would be seeking further treatment once she didn’t need a full medical environment. So many different stories. I wish her the best.

  10. ocjulia says:

    I hope she didn’t damage her liver.

    • MeghanNotMarkle says:

      That’s my thought, too. But I think (it’s been a while since I studied this so I might be a little off) usually once they reach day 4 they’re in the clear for liver failure. Day 3 is the make-or-break for that particular problem.

  11. minx says:

    She just needs a lot of help and I hope she gets it.

  12. Electric Tuba says:

    My cousin died this way. I don’t judge addicts because I fully know life is very, very difficult and painful and god sometimes people just want to feel good, numb that pain, and feel even a moment of joy. I truly believe legalizing marijuana will help keep people from trying opioids, painkillers, Xanax, any of that the first time. It saves the lives of trauma and anxiety and depression sufferers and countless others everyday. EMDR and THC kept me alive. I want everyone to be ok

    • Mrs. Bad Bob says:

      Marijuana was illegalized for racist reasons and there was never any sensible reason to make it illegal. In fact, this illegality has blocked legitimate scientific research in this country for far too long. The “War on Drugs” is one of the most misguided and ill-conceived strategies our government has ever pushed. A “War” on the American people, targeting and scapegoating the most vulnerable people in our society. Once you illegalize it, you create a black market, once you have a black market, you have a huge escalation in crime and people start killing over it. Prohibition doesn’t ever work, why try it again? I will never forgive my government for this wave of death and misery they’ve created. All this blood is on their collective hands.

  13. Vinot says:

    If she’s detoxing, it’s a good chance that she will move on to inpatient rehab. Otherwise, she’d have checked herself out by now in order to get high.

  14. Pandy says:

    Yikes those pictures!!!

  15. Cherryy says:

    I hope it’s not venal withdrawals, they’re really dangerous to come off and I became the epileptic even though I tapered from 5 mg lorazepam. I’ve struggled with both opiates and benzos and I’ll rather go through 5 opiate withdrawals than another benzo. Withdrawal. It’s has hard-core as a long term alcoholic stops drinking, dangerous and it the symptoms are similar to opiate WD except i felt my skin on fire/electric/wanting to rip it off while stuff was coming out both ends and sweating. Plus it’s not 1 week of bell and you’re clean, it takes months to feel normal and you don’t get better with each day, hence why lots of people go back to a small controlled amount each day just to avoid dying during a seizure and the mental torture. It’s really under-estimated