Tennis champion and legend, Serena Williams gave birth all the way back in September but has been outlining just how tough her road to recovery has been so far. Her daughter, Alexis Olympia, is a healthy child but it was revealed in a CNN article that Williams went through a medical battle during birth.
In that CNN article, Williams talks about the near-death experience. She also discusses and advocates for medical resources in underprivileged countries.
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. 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. First my C-section wound popped open due to the intense coughing I endured as a result of the embolism. 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 full CNN op-ed that she wrote talks about how change is needed. She urges those reading to donate to UNICEF and help out. She also notes that she was lucky to come out of it as she did. It was a long winding road back to recovery, but she is on the right path.
