CLEVELAND — If you’ve had a brush with death, you never forget it. News 5 Anchor Courtney Gousman talked to a prominent leader here in Northeast Ohio about her story of survival.
Dr. Airica Steed is now the CEO of MetroHealth. However, several years ago, she almost lost her life during pregnancy, narrowly escaping becoming a victim of maternal mortality. The nurse and hospital leader shared her remarkable story with Gousman as she continued her series, Delivering Better Results.
On Dec. 5, 2022, Steed became MetroHealth’s leader, and she’s the first Black woman and nurse to hold the position.
“Unfortunately, my passion was born of pain and born of tragedy,” Steed said.
How the Chicago native ended up here has much to do with a series of losses in her life. At 23, Steed lost her mother, who was just 46. The critical care nurse died of a rare form of cancer known as Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She had been misdiagnosed twice.
Breast cancer claimed the lives of both of her grandmothers.
“After a series of hiccups or delayed care, misdiagnoses, mistreatment, inappropriate treatment,” Steed said.
Perhaps the most devastating loss came just a year and a half ago.
“Something that completely broke my heart was when my younger sister, at age 39 years old, lost her life to fourth-stage breast cancer.”
Despite their family history, Steed tells Gousman, her youngest sister was denied a mammogram several years before her diagnosis.
“She was too young, is what she was told. She was in her early 30s,” Steed said.
Steed’s story as a changemaker may have started with her brush with death. MetroHealth’s top boss told Gousman she’s a two-time preeclampsia survivor.
Preeclampsia is a serious condition that can affect pregnant women, marked by high and sometimes deadly blood pressure levels.
The mother of four said her last pregnancy nearly took her life due to a sudden onset of preeclampsia.
“I woke up with the most excruciating headache, and I literally felt I was having an aneurysm. As I pulled over the sheets, I looked down at my lower extremities, and I can honestly tell you that my legs looked like logs.”
Steed was near the beginning of her third trimester when she was rushed to the emergency room.
“A lot of people running, running across the room. What I recall is my physician; she started praying over me. I was very concerned when she started praying. She started tearing up, actually.”
Steed was rushed to a second hospital where doctors were preparing to perform a C-section.
“I don’t think I should be breathing right now, and what my blood pressure readings were. It was stroke-like levels,” she said.
Steed’s liver and kidney functions were compromised. As she was fighting for her life, she went into labor, naturally delivering her daughter Rylie at just 29 weeks.
Rylie weighed just 1.5 pounds and would spend four months in the hospital.
Seven years later, Steed told News 5 her youngest is now thriving while she, herself, still recovers, both mentally and physically, from that traumatic experience.
“I was certainly aware that I was becoming a statistic in that moment. If you’re a Black woman, and I certainly am, you’re three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes,” Steed said.
When asked if she was on the verge of death, Steed responded, “I felt it. I felt it.”
We’re not done talking with Dr. Steed. In part two of our conversation with the CEO, she shares with Gousman how this brush with maternal mortality has helped mold the changes she’s making at MetroHealth for all patients to get the care they deserve.
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