Christy Kirk, 27, had a stroke in 2003, and doctors initially mistook it for a panic attack.
Kirk, a dentist and marathon runner from Boston, was preparing for her first Boston Marathon at the time. She was in good shape, going for daily runs after spending 5 to 8 hours in dental school.
Kirk began feeling “a little off” one day after returning home from a training run, and she suspected she had run too hard. The entire right side of her body went numb a few minutes later while she was sitting on her couch.