"No one was really listening to what I was saying" - Recalling Serena Williams' near-death incident after childbirth following Tori Bowie's death
Serena Williams gave birth to her daughter Olympia in September 2017 but the ordeal was not an easy one as she endured a lot of complications.
Recently, 2016 Olympic gold medallist Tori Bowie died due to childbirth complications that included eclampsia and respiratory distress. Her baby, a girl, was stillborn.
This tragedy takes us back to 2017 when Serena Williams faced complications after undergoing a C-section to give birth to her daughter Olympia.
Williams narrated the incident while talking to Elle last year and claimed that no one was listening to her when she felt something was wrong.
"No one was really listening to what I was saying," Williams said.
The 23-time Grand Slam said that she felt like she was dying after she woke up from her surgery.
“When I woke up from that surgery, in the hospital room with my parents and my in-laws, I felt like I was dying. They were trying to talk to me, and all I could think was, ‘I’m dying, I’m dying. Oh my God,'" she said.
Serena Williams also said that she told her mother that she needed to have a CAT scan of her lungs and had to fight hard before getting the scan done, which showed that she had a blood clot in her lungs.
“I told her: ‘I need to have a CAT scan of my lungs bilaterally, and then I need to be on my heparin drip.' She said, ‘I think all this medicine is making you talk crazy.’ I said, ‘No, I’m telling you what I need: I need the scan immediately. And I need it to be done with dye.’ I guess I said the name of the dye wrong, and she told me I just needed to rest. But I persisted: ‘I’m telling you, this is what I need,’” Williams said.
“I fought hard, and I ended up getting the CAT scan. I’m so grateful to (the doctor). Lo and behold, I had a blood clot in my lungs, and they needed to insert a filter into my veins to break up the clot before it reached my heart," she added.
Serena Williams reached 4 Grand Slam finals after the birth of her daughter
Following the birth of her daughter, Serena Williams returned to action in 2018 and reached four Grand Slam finals. Unfortunately, she didn't win any.
The American reached the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, she lost to Angelique Kerber in the final of the grasscourt Major while being beaten by Naomi Osaka at Flushing Meadows.
In 2019, the former World No. 1 lost to Simona Halep and Bianca Andreescu in the Wimbledon and US Open finals respectively.
Serena Williams announced her retirement from tennis in 2022, with the US Open being her final tournament. She reached the third round before losing to Ajla Tomljanovic.