Serena lives in fear of blood clots that almost killed her

Relives horrifying experience during childbirth

Serena Williams says she lives in fear of blood clots, a condition that surfaced during a harrowing post natal ordeal in September when she almost died giving birth to her first child.

In an op-ed piece she wrote for CNN on Tuesday, the tennis legend lifted the lid on her near-death experience while giving birth to daughter, Olympia, after getting blood clots in her lungs. “I almost died after giving birth to my daughter,” Williams said.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams said she had to have an emergency Cesarean section surgery after her heart rate plummeted dramatically during contractions. The surgery was successful and before she knew it she was holding the newborn. “But what followed just 24 hours after giving birth were six days of uncertainty,” she said.

In a magazine interview in January, Williams said that during her postnatal ordeal she suffered a pulmonary embolism — when blood clots block one or more arteries in the lungs.

Williams said that while recovering in the hospital after the emergency Cesarean, she felt short of breath and the hospital staff sent for a CT scan and then put her on a life-saving drip. But her ordeal wasn’t over. She started coughing so much from the blood clots that her Cesarean wound popped open. “I returned to surgery where the doctors found a large hematoma in my abdomen. Then I returned to the operating room for a procedure that prevents clots from travelling to my lungs.