After a mini-stroke, Sarasota surgical tech started walking; now she runs marathons

Henrissa Summers woke up one morning  in 2014 with both a sense of numbness and tingling in her left shoulder and arm.

At the time Summers worked as a surgical technologist at Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience in Philadelphia.

Her physician confirmed those as symptoms of a mini-stroke. Summers, who has a history of anemia, took a stress test and 15 minutes later,  “I’m hugging the treadmill, get me out of here –  can't breathe,” recalled Summers, who now works at HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital.

She was diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenic purpura, or ITP, a rare autoimmune disorder that causes low platelet levels.

Summers, who is sharing her story because February is American Heart Month, made a point of embracing a low-sodium, low potassium diet, and makes sure she drinks enough water – in part to reduce the number of medications to combat ITP, which in her case is a genetic condition traced back to her great-great grandparents on her father’s side.

“If I don’t walk I start getting headaches, and if I don't drink enough water I start getting seizures,” Summers said. “I just leveled up my water and started walking diligently – I started with 50 steps.”

To help build a weakened circulatory system, she was directed to walk 500 steps a day – which she would do in the operating room, until her boss told her that circular walking was making him dizzy.

She moved her regime outside to the central Philadelphia neighborhood around the hospital. Her steps increased to 1,000 and then walking and running on her lunchtime – earning her in 2016, the nickname, “the girl who runs in scrubs.”

At the urging of co-workers and as her health improved, Summers started running 5K races, then 10K races and eventually half-marathons and marathons.

A change of scenery

Originally from the Philippines, Summers moved to New York City with her sister and worked at the hospital at NYU, and later moved to Philadelphia, where her husband Brandon worked as an executive chef at P.F. Chang’s for 24 years.

They moved to Sarasota in 2022, when Brandon took over at the Sarasota location, though he now works at the Rooftop Cafe at the Oncology Tower at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, preparing meals designed to promote and showcase healthy eating options for cancer patients and their family members.

The husband-and-wife team also operated a small, healthy catering business, Summers Henn.

The move was partly for his job but also to give them a change of scenery after the death of her daughter Steffany, 28, from breast cancer.

Summers, who still needs regular transfusions to offset some of the impact of her ITP, and medical clearance to run races and marathons as extensively as she does, learned about her daughter’s cancer in 2018.

“When she called me she said, ‘Mom, I think I’m going to die before you,’” Summers recalled.

When Steffany was diagnosed, the cancer was already at stage 3 and by November it had progressed to stage 4.

She died on Feb. 9, 2019.

Running became a form of mourning

Just a few weeks after her daughter’s death, Summers participated in the Philadelphia Love Run Half-Marathon, even though she did not have doctor’s clearance and had been struggling with her ITP.

She was gasping for breath and two friends helped her complete the race – at times carrying her – but stopped with enough distance that she crossed the line on her own.

Following that, Summers needed a wheelchair, as she received blood transfusions.

“I ran the most races in my life that year, the whole year alone, because I used that as my form of healing,” Summers said.

In all, she ran 29 half-marathons, 32 marathons and six ultramarathons – taking heart in the sights and sounds that reminded her of Steffany.

“I have to stay positive,” Summers said.

"Even when I was struggling with my ITP I was thinking there are so many signs Steff’s been around,” she added. “I see sunflowers everywhere – that’s our favorite flower – sometimes there’s music.

One time, when Summers was having trouble finishing a race, a song would remind her of Steffany, another time she’d see a ‘Happy Birthday’ sign with Steffany spelled the same as her daughter’s name.

“It’s like her trying to tell me, ‘OK mom, you can do this, you can do this,’” Summers said.

Learning the neighborhood in Venice

Since Summers and her husband moved to Northeast Venice near Jacaranda Boulevard, she has not had time to enter a race.

She has already participated in the New York City and Chicago marathons – two of the six world major marathons – and just missed the cut for her age group by three seconds to run in the Boston Marathon.

She hopes to run in that and possibly the Berlin Marathon, as well as longer endurance races – including resuming ultramarathons and the Yeti 100-mile Endurance Run, which is hosted both on the U.S. east and west coasts.

Summers trains, both running and biking with Brandon in the neighborhood, on the Legacy Trail, and along the trails in Wellen Park.

Her workouts cover anywhere from three- and seven-mile runs to longer 10- to 12-mile stretches, six days a week.

Just as she has since starting with 50 steps a day in Philadelphia, Summers also shares her story.

“I just run wherever, whenever, until I cannot run anymore,” Summers said. “A lot of people become inspired, they say, ‘What am I doing sitting on the couch when Henrissa just did her five-mile, seven-mile run.’”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Doctors Hospital staffer went from mini-stroke to marathons