Health
serena williams had to save her own life and deal with doctors that didn’t believe her
Dishing on the newest chapters of life as a newlywed and a new mother to a baby girl, Serena Williams shared one of the most harrowing encounters of her new life with TeenVogue.
After giving birth to daughter Alexis, the tennis superstar revealed that the medical staff treating her through her recovery were less than quick to act when the tennis star began experiencing, what she feared, could’ve been blood clots.
Picking herself up out of the hospital bed, Williams walked herself out of the room towards the nearest pair of nurses and told them she needed a CT scan with contrast and IV heparin (a blood thinner) right away. A nurse reportedly thought the pain medicine had confused Willaims and that she didn’t know what she was talking about. “I was like, a Doppler? I told you, I need a CT scan and a heparin drip,” she remembers telling the team. After the ultrasound revealed nothing, the team agreed to perform a CT scan where they found that several small blood clots had settled in her lungs. “I was like, listen to Dr. Williams!”
Black women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related complications. The lack of disdain and trust from doctors factors into that, even when the Black woman is as powerful, famous, and wealthy as Serena Williams. https://t.co/XqUOW6MQIZ pic.twitter.com/Z9QgRKxKcm
— Evette Dionne 🤔 (@freeblackgirl) January 10, 2018
Damn! So glad mom and baby are safe now!
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