Stroke Community

Im looking to find some answers regarding my fathers strokes. My Dad had his first stroke Sept, 2009. When he had this one it only affected his speech slightly. He was taken to the hospital and checked out and his Dr informed him that the tests that they performed showed that he had a few TIA's prior that my Dad didnt even know he had. My Dad had all kinds of tests done and we were told that he was a healthy man and there isnt anything wrong with him. He was advised to stop drinking alcohol. (he was a beer drinker. Drank socially, not an alcoholic or anything, and he did stop drinking beer at this point)

Over the next 8 months my Dad had a total of 4 more strokes. Each 1 affected him worse each time. His speech was getting worse with each 1, he spoke very slow and studdard. The last 2 that hit him also affected his RT arm, he couldnt use it at all. He started rehab which helped with his speech but not too much with his arm. He was put on heperin at first, then after he kept having the strokes he was put on coumadin. His Drs still couldnt find anything wrong with him. My Dad was in Columbia Presbyterian in NYC each time he had a stroke and the Drs there couldnt even find what the problem was. He was told to just continue taking the coumadin.

Sept 2010 my Dad had another stroke, this time it affected his speech to the point that he couldnt talk, he couldnt walk, or move either arm. He was again shipped to Columbia Pres. They did all kinds of tests on him again, his neurologist said that there was a very small clot on his heart and that could be causing him to keep having strokes. They said if they could remove it he would probably not have anymore strokes. He was scheduled to have open heart surgery 2 weeks later. In the meantime he began to speak a little bit, he could say some words and communicate with us and also was able to move this left arm a little bit. Oct 2010 he had the heart surgery. Drs said everything went well and they removed the clot. We all hoped this was the end of him having strokes. They said that my Dad should revcovery fine.

2 days after the surgery they did some more tests on my Dad. The Drs discovered that my Dad was hit somewhere between 4-6 more strokes at once. Where they hit in the brain caused him to be completely blind and have brain damage. His neurologist told my family that he would probably never recover from it, it was too much for his body to handle. This was devastating for my family. The Dr said that this was such a rare case but he has seen this happen with 2 other patients that he had treated in the past and both those patients had some form of cancer. HE said my Dad could possibly have cancer. They did a PET scan(or CT scan, cant remember axactly) and no cancer was found at all in my dads body. We were told it could be possible that the cancer was so small that it wouldnt show up on any tests, they didnt know for sure.

My dad remained like this for the next 4 months, he had a feeding tube put in and was given morphine everyday. We didnt know if he was in any pain because he couldnt communicate at all with us. We were told that all his organs were perfectly strong and none of his Drs or specialists could explain what was wrong. My Dad was only 52 years old, What could possibly be wrong? In Nov my step mom put my dad in a nursing home. He got sick every 3 weeks and would be admitted into the hospital for fever and other illnesses. In Feb he was admitted into a hospice residence, he passed away 8 days later. It was the worst thing i have ever experienced, to watch my father pass away right in front of me was horrible. His body had finally given up.

An autopsy was performed on my Dad to see if there was some kind of cancer or something else that maybe wasnt able to be seen. I finally got the autopsy results and the cause of death was "multiple strokes". I just dont understand. No Drs can answer why my dad had stroke after stroke. He was only 52 yrs old! Any info would be greatly appreci