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Tennis star Serena Williams was hospitalized in 2011 for PE thought to have originated from DVT. Years later, in 2017, due to her knowledge of DVT and PE, Serena accurately advocated for herself to have a PE diagnosed and treated. During this encounter with VTE, she was hospitalized after a C-section surgery and was off blood thinners. After feeling the sudden onset of a PE symptom, shortness of breath, she told her nurse and requested a CT scan and an IV heparin drip, all while gasping for air. She started to receive an ultrasound to look for DVT in the legs, prompting her to express dissatisfaction to the medical staff that they were not looking for clots where she had symptoms (her lungs), and they were not yet treating her presumed PE. After being diagnosed with PE and not DVT, and after receiving heparin IV, the coughing from the PE caused her C-section surgical site to open, and the heparin contributed to bleeding at the site. Serena later received an IVC filter while in the hospital.