Serena Williams fought for her life. This is one of the reasons for ending a sports career

Serena Williams, one of the most successful tennis players in the world, announced the end of her sports career on August 9. She argued her farewell to the tennis world with the fact that she wanted to devote herself to the development of her company, spend more time with her family and take better care of herself. Few know that behind this decision are health problems that a few years ago made the tennis star fight for his life. And that, betting on himself and his family today, Williams wants to keep them at all costs.

1. In 2010, Serena Williams was diagnosed with thrombosis. In this disease, blood clots form in the veins, which obstruct or prevent blood flow and lead to hypoxia in the surrounding tissues and organs
2. In 2017, the tennis player became pregnant, which ended in a cesarean section. After giving birth, she developed a pulmonary embolism
3. During the seven days of her stay in the hospital, the athlete underwent four operations
4. In a poignant account of these moments, Serena Williams stresses that if it were not for her persistence and pleading for imaging tests and drugs that medical staff initially disregarded, she would probably have died
5. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

“This sport torn me to pieces”

Doctors, hospitals, surgeries, drugs and rehabilitation are daily bread for an athlete. Serena Williams was no exception. She started practicing sports as a child, and at the age of 14 she played her first professional matches. «This sport torn me apart. I sprained my ankles many times, smashed my knees, played with a patched Achilles tendon, interrupted matches due to back cramps. I have had every possible injury»- she admitted in a letter published by Elle magazine.

This letter is one of the most important and intimate things a tennis player has ever told about herself. In it, she describes the history of an unplanned pregnancy, the solutions and postpartum complications that left her life in a thread.

«I guess I’m one of those women who like to be pregnant; I enjoyed positive attention. I’m used to negative press and that was different. I found myself in a completely new way of being. I was relaxed not playing. I was sitting at home and it was great »- he recalls the beginning of pregnancy, adding that the psychological well-being was certainly influenced by the lack of any major pregnancy ailments. “The first trimester brought headaches and a strange metallic taste in my mouth, but overall I had a wonderful pregnancy,” she says.

“Being an athlete is knowing when to give up”

The problems only started in the hospital, just before being resolved. Serena wanted to give birth naturally and it seemed that she would. «I know it shouldn’t be said, but I enjoyed my labor in childbirth. I was completely immersed in it. I loved the contractions. I loved feeling my body trying to give birth to a child »- she recalls.

Unfortunately, the contractions caused the baby’s heart rate to fluctuate. At first, it helped to change to the lateral position, but in the end the doctors made a decision about caesarean section.

«Since it was my first child, I really wanted to give it a natural birth, but I thought to myself: ‘I’ve had so many operations, so what if there will be another one?’ Being an athlete is about constantly controlling your body, wielding its power, but also knowing when to give up” – explain.

The rest of the text below the video.

“I couldn’t breathe”

When Serena woke up after cesarean, she was holding her daughter Olympia in her arms. She was happy though she couldn’t move – her body was paralyzed. She thought it was anesthetic, she was still stunned by the drugs. «So much of what happened next is still blurred. I may have fainted several times, ”she writes, adding that“ in this fog ”she wondered if she should ask for a heparin drip.

This thought was not a “dream” of the semi-conscious patient. In 2010, Serena Williams was diagnosed with thrombosis. Blood clots appeared in her lungs, which – if not found in time – could have led to her death. «Since then, I have lived in fear of their return. It wasn’t a one-time incident; I am at high risk of developing blood clots »- he explains.

When she actually asked the nurse about the drip, she was refused. It was then that the tennis player’s nightmare began.

The administration of heparin could cause bleeding from the caesarean section wound – this was a fact and the athlete did not discuss it. The problem was that the pain was getting worse. “I couldn’t move at all – neither with my legs, nor my back, nothing.” Then there was a terrible, excruciating cough. Nurses warned Williams that it could rupture the sutures, but the reflex was too strong to stop.

«I couldn’t breathe. I was coughing because I couldn’t draw a breath. I grabbed the towel, rolled it up, and held it against the cut wound. Of course, I was coughing so hard the stitches burst. I was taken to an operation to sew the wound back up »- he reports.

It was the first of four surgeries that Williams underwent in her only seven-day postpartum hospital stay. It quickly turned out that there were several clots in the arteries, and the doctors also discovered a hematoma.

“For me, it was just a fog, operations one after the other,” remembers Serena, adding that all she remembers is the strange “trend” about her husband. Whenever Alexis Ohanian tried to go home for a while to take a shower (he did not leave his partner a step from the moment the birth began), Serena would return to the operating room. After the fourth treatment, Alexis «took a shower in the hospital room because he was afraid to go out the door. He didn’t try again, and I didn’t have any more operations »says Serena.

“Being heard was the difference between life and death for me”

The sportswoman draws attention to the fact that she had huge problems with communicating with the medical staff. Its cause was not the aforementioned “fog” or the accompanying pain, but the lack of understanding on the other hand.

Williams asked that a CT scan be performed for her, necessarily with contrast. In the amok, however, she gave the wrong name, which the nurse interpreted as a sign of tiredness and the effects of anesthetics. She refused. «But I insisted: ‘I’m telling you, that’s what I need.’ Finally, the nurse called my doctor, insisting that they check it »she recalls, adding that to this day she is grateful to her that she listened to her.

«In the United States, black women are almost three times more likely to die during or after childbirth than white women»- he notes. «Experts believe that many of these deaths are preventable. Being heard and treated properly was the difference between life and death for me. I know these statistics would be different if medical staff listened to the experiences of every black woman, ”says Serena Williams.

The desperate fight for the tennis player’s life was successful. «When I got home, I couldn’t reach the door on my own. The tree halfway up the driveway turned out to be a huge obstacle. My relatives cheered on me, (…) my dad was motivating: “Listen, you did it!”, After all the years when he trained me hard and was deaf to my excuses. I’m glad they didn’t show me how bad it really was ”.

Serena Williams returned to court eight months after being in hospitalstraight to the French Open. The form she returned to is evidenced by the fact that during the summer competitions (Wimbledon and US Open) she reached the finals. Unbelievable? Considering the Australian Open 2017 won in a big way when she was eight weeks pregnant – not at all.