The tennis legend says she could have died giving birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia after getting blood cots in her lungs.
- Feb 21, 2018
AceShowbiz - Serena Williams has opened up about her near-death experience after giving birth to her daughter last year. The professional tennis star previously admitted she had to undergo an emergency C-section when she gave birth to Alexis Olympia, whom she shares with husband Alexis Ohanian, in September, and she has now revealed the situation was so dire she almost lost her life just days after giving birth.
In an op-ed written for CNN and published on Tuesday, February 20, Serena revealed, "I almost died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia. Yet I consider myself fortunate." The 36-year-old Grand Slam champion went on sharing, "While I had a pretty easy pregnancy, my daughter was born by emergency C-section after her heart rate dropped dramatically during contractions."
"The surgery went smoothly," and before she knew it, "Olympia was in my arms," Serena continued. "It was the most amazing feeling I've ever experienced in my life," she admitted, "But what followed just 24 hours after giving birth were six days of uncertainty."
Serena said she was plagued by health problems after giving birth, including a pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a blood clot forms in one or more of the arteries in her lungs. "It began with a pulmonary embolism, which is a condition in which one or more arteries in the lungs becomes blocked by a blood clot," she shared. "Because of my medical history with this problem, I live in fear of this situation. So, when I fell short of breath, I didn't wait a second to alert the nurses."
"This sparked a slew of health complications that I am lucky to have survived," she continued sharing. "First my C-section wound popped open due to the intense coughing I endured as a result of the embolism," she recalled. "I returned to surgery, where the doctors found a large hematoma, a swelling of clotted blood, in my abdomen. And then I returned to the operating room for a procedure that prevents clots from traveling to my lungs. When I finally made it home to my family, I had to spend the first six weeks of motherhood in bed."
The tennis superstar then thanked her "incredible medical team" for saving her life. In the piece, she said that she's "so grateful I had access to such an incredible medical team of doctors and nurses at a hospital with state-of-the-art equipment. They knew exactly how to handle this complicated turn of events." She concluded, "If it weren't for their professional care, I wouldn't be here today."
