In the following sentence,
He [the verb] apoplexy a few years back and was suffering from numbness on the left side of the body, hence the need for a cane to walk.
what is the appropriate verb for "apoplexy"? Is it "get" like some other diseases? I checked some online dictionaries but none of them has an example except for one that used "suffering" as an example which is not what I am after because I'm referring to the very moment that it happened.