Serena Williams opened up about the near death experience she had after giving birth to her daughter, Olympia, on Sept. 1st. She says after Olympia’s heart rate dropped, she ended up having to have an emergency C-section, which was a success.
However, when talking with CNN.com, she says”what followed just 24 hours after giving birth were six days of uncertainty.” According to her interview, she suffered from a pulmonary embolism, which is when one or more arteries in the lungs become blocked by a blood clot.
Serena recalls that her condition got bad enough to where she popped her C-section wound open, from excessive coughing. She then immediately had to be rushed to surgery, where she says “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.”
Serena was ordered to spend six weeks on bed rest, after eventually being cleared to go home. She now looks back and thanks the “incredible medical team of doctors and nurses at a hospital with state-of-the-art equipment.” She also encourages everyone to support UNICEF, an organization that provides medical services to mothers and their babies.
