82-Year-Old Woman With Acute-Onset Left-Sided Weakness

Abstract

An 82-year-old woman with a history of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension presented to the emergency department with sudden onset of left arm and leg weakness. She was sitting in church when she developed left-sided posterior neck and shoulder pain, followed 1 hour later by sudden-onset dense left-sided weakness. Emergency medical services were called, and they activated the prehospital stroke-notification protocol. The patient arrived at the emergency department approximately 30 minutes after the onset of the weakness.