Stroke & tpa my husband had a stroke in 2007 at the age of 56. his first symptoms although he had a headache/ vomiting, which we thought was a touch of flu, it wasn't until a few hours later that he developed double vision, numbness & loss of balance.

There : There are two types of stroke: thrombotic (a clot blocks flow) and hemorrhagic (bleeding into the brain). Thrombotic strokes are the ones that arise from areas of narrowing in the arteries that flow to the brain, as it sounds like your husband has. So, yes, it's possible that the clot dissolving drug tpa (alteplase) might have helped him. On the other hand, tpa (alteplase) is not a benign drug: it can cause hemorrhagic strokes. In fact, bleeding into the brain is the biggest risk to using it, and the likelihood of that outcome increases with the time since since symptoms began. Because of this risk, tpa (alteplase) is usually not used for thrombotic strokes unless the stroke is really severe. The last thing you want to do is convert a mild thrombotic stroke into a fatal hemorrhagic stroke. So, based upon what you've said, i think that your husband probably would not have qualified for tpa (alteplase) because 1) his symptoms were relatively mild (enough so that they were not even recognized as being an acute stroke) and 2) those symptoms had been present for several hours before he was seen.

?: I'm not sure your question. This does sound normal for a stroke but my greatest concern is the comparatively young age, i hope this has been well evaluated and possible problems treated to reduce the risk of recurrence.