Dizzy Spells

It took two decades to get a diagnosis for her chronic fainting

- Luc Rinaldi

THE FIRST TIME Kim Ryberg fainted, she was 13 years old. It was the early 2000s and she was in front of her classroom in rural Montana, delivering a presentation to her peers. She suddenly felt light-headed, then collapsed. When she woke up several minutes later, she went to the school nurse, who wasn't sure why it had happened. Perhaps it was just nerves, she said. Ryberg went home for the day and hoped it wouldn't happen again.

She wasn't so lucky. Throughout high school, Ryberg fainted once or twice a month-in class, during choir recitals, at the grocery store. "It was like Russian roulette," she says. Every morning she would wonder, “Am I going to faint today?"

Worse, Ryberg started experiencing other alarming symptoms: a racing heartbeat, vomiting and bouts of brain fog that made it hard to concentrate. One moment, she'd be sweating profusely; the next, she was freezing cold.

At first, Ryberg's parents wondered whether she was just being dramatic, but when the issues continued, they took her to their family doctor. The GP was stumped-she'd never seen anything like it. Ryberg's parents consulted more physicians, who diagnosed her as stressed or suffering from anxiety. Some said she was faking it to get attention. “Look at me and you'd think I was the healthiest person on planet earth,” she says. “That was part of the problem. I didn't look sick."

Nonetheless, Ryberg's mysterious illness shaped her life. She frequently missed school because of health problems and medical appointments. She chose not to drive-what if she fainted behind the wheel? “As if high school isn't hard enough for the average person, I had all of this going on,” she says.