Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler was put into an ‘induced coma’ following emergency surgery after her appendix burst.
The 74-year-old, best known for the 1983 tune Total Eclipse of the Heart, underwent an intestinal operation at a hospital in Faro, Portugal, having been rushed in with a perforated intestine late last month.
A statement on her website previously read: ‘We are very sorry to announce that Bonnie has been admitted to hospital in Faro, Portugal, where she has a home, for emergency intestinal surgery.
‘The surgery went well, and she is now recuperating. We know that all of her family, friends, and fans will be concerned about this news and will be wishing her well for a full and swift recovery.’
While Tyler’s condition was stable yesterday, according to local media, she deteriorated in the yesterday. Portuguese daily paper Correio da Manha said she was ‘unconscious’ and breathing via a ventilator.
Now her friend, Algarve-based businessman Liberto Mealha, has shared that Tyler began to feel intense abdominal pain shortly after arriving in Portugal where she has a second home following inconclusive tests in London.
Tyler, godmother to Mealha’s daughter, remains in an induced coma in intensive care at Faro Hospital this morning.
‘She started feeling unwell during a concert in London and went to a doctor for tests, but they didn’t detect anything there,’ he explained.
‘She decided to travel to the Algarve, where she began to feel severe abdominal pain.
‘Two days later, she went to a private hospital, which urgently transferred her to the hospital in Faro because her appendix had burst and she needed emergency surgery.’
The entrepreneur, who first met Tyler when he opened a well-known Albufeira nightclub in the eighties, told Correio da Manha that Tyler’s husband Robert Sullivan is spending his days by her hospital bedside and only leaving to sleep at home at nighttime.
‘He’s very grateful to the doctors and nurses at the Faro hospital and believes that if Bonnie had stayed in the United Kingdom she would no longer be here,’ he added.
Last night her team issued an update, confirming toMetro: ‘Bonnie has been put into an induced coma by her doctors to aid her recovery.
‘We know that you all wish her well and ask for privacy at this difficult time, please.’
Her managers added: ‘We will issue a further statement when we are able to.’
Tyler, whose real name is Gaynor Sullivan, has been living in Portugal for several years, having been there when the first lockdown was announced.
She splits her time between the country and South Wales, deciding to dedicate more time to the Algarve after falling in love with it while recording an album there.
With regards to her health, the music icon has spoken openly about her issues in the past, the main one being her knees.
‘I have had problems with my knees; I didn’t have new knees, I had what they call “washouts” [a surgical knee procedure], which turned out to be very successful. So, hopefully that will last for a long time,’ she told Hello! in March.
Still, she insisted that she was in good health, adding: ‘I’m fit enough at the moment, touch wood, and I’m really enjoying doing the shows.
‘I’m still rocking on that stage with my wonderful band, and if you’ve got your health, you’ve got everything.’
Tyler went on to discuss her fitness regime, revealing that she had been doing ‘home Pilates’ for 20 minutes a day, as it’s ‘something [she] can do in [her] hotel rooms’ while travelling.
Last year, the songstress also insisted to The Mirror that she had no plans to retire, despite ‘slowing down’ in recent years.
She currently has tour dates scheduled in Europe, set to kick off on May 22 and run until December. It is unclear right now whether they will go ahead.
Known for her distinctive husky voice, Tyler started singing when she was 17 but rose to fame in 1977 with her record The World Starts Tonight, which included singles Lost in France and More Than a Lover.
The same year, her track It’s a Heartache topped the UK Singles Chart and reached number three in the US.
She went on to forge a hugely successful career, earning multiple Grammy nominations, three Brit Award nominations, and receiving an MBE in 2022 for services to music.
In 2013, she represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest with Believe in Me, finishing in 19th place with 23 points.
Despite the outcome, she wasn’t disheartened, stating afterwards: ‘I did the best that I could do with a great song.
‘I’m so glad and so happy that I did it because it was an incredible experience. It was like the Grammy Awards all over again.’
The Holding Out for a Hero vocalist has long been keen to uplift others with her art, expressing last year that she wanted her latest single, Yes I Can, to inspire anyone who needs a bit of a ‘boost’.
She said: ‘The song is all about finding your strength and believing in yourself, and I’m hoping it’ll inspire anyone who needs that boost.
‘When I was a girl, I loved singing, and I knew it was what I wanted to do, but I didn’t have the confidence and didn’t feel I could.
‘And since then, I’ve conquered the world. It’s been a journey, and I’m still on that journey now.’
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