She saved her own life during a near-death encounter, Serena Williams says.

After giving birth to Olympia via C-section in 2017, the tennis star was in excruciating pain and couldn't stop coughing, but when she asked her nurse to have a CAT scan, she was ignored.

She said she had a  conversation with the nurse. Since her heparin drip was not working, she informed the nurse that she needed to have a CAT scan of my lungs bilaterally.

She was told that she is not making sense and that her thoughts were only the effects lf the medicine by the nurse. 

Elle released an essay by Williams on Tuesday that goes into great length about this. 

The scan must be done promptly, the athlete insisted. 

In addition, she requires that it be dyed. She was told to just rest but she did not back down on her request.

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After several attempts to get the nurse to listen, the athlete, 40, recounted that a doctor was brought in. 

"I fought hard, and I ended up getting the CAT scan. I'm so grateful to her. 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," Williams said.

Williams said the results revealed things could have gotten so much worse for her. She would have died had the test was not conducted.

Williams, who underwent three surgeries following her C-section, shared that speaking up for herself certainly turned things around. Otherwise, she would not be saved.

"Giving birth to my baby, it turned out, was a test for how loud and how often I would have to call out before I was finally heard," she said.

Williams added that her experience highlighted a big problem in the health care system.

According to her, there is an inherent prejudice in the healthcare system, causing more Black women to die after childbirth. Only being heard when concerns are voiced can possibly save them, and yet countless women are not given the attention they need after giving birth.

"In the U.S., Black women are nearly three times more likely to die during or after childbirth than their white counterparts. Many of these deaths are considered by experts to be preventable," she wrote. "Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life or death for me; I know those statistics would be different if the medical establishment listened to every Black woman's experience."

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