She was ambushed by searing leg pain that struck without warning

In the hours before her life was upended, Megan Freedman had attended a memorable business dinner surrounded by cherished colleagues at a trendy restaurant in Santa Monica, Calif., overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

“We’d had the most fun,” recalled Freedman, the owner of a New York City fashion showroom who was in Los Angeles in October 2019 to meet with her designers and buyers for national retailers. Perched on a wall outside the restaurant after dinner, Freedman was chatting as she and her friends waited for their cars. When she stood up, her left leg suddenly buckled and she fell. “I wasn’t drunk,” she said. “I just went boink and someone had to lift me up.”