Serena Williams Shares Near-Death Experience After Childbirth Due to Dismissed Symptoms

Tennis champion Serena Williams publicly shared in a 2018 Vogue interview that she nearly died after giving birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia in September 2017 at a hospital in Palm Beach, FL. Williams, who has a history of blood clots, told a nurse she was experiencing symptoms of pulmonary embolism. The nurse dismissed her concerns; a doctor initially attributed her breathlessness to medication. After Williams insisted, a CT scan revealed multiple blood clots in her lungs. Williams' story, told by one of the most famous and wealthy Black women in America, illustrated that medical dismissal of Black women's pain crossed class lines and became widely cited in maternal mortality advocacy.