Stroke after an Accident

My father in-law was in an automobile accident and suffered whiplash it. No more than ten hours later did he have a stroke. He was hospitalised for over 2 months because of paralysis on his right side.

The specialist informed my father in-law that the stroke proceeding the car accident was just coincidental. On the contrary, his doctor believes thats not the case. He only widhed he had some way to prove it.

My father in-law was 56 when he suffered the stroke. He in a non-smoker, non-drinker and overall has great health. My question is whether there has been documented cases proving that an accident can cause a stroke?

Thank you in advance...

[Cleveland Clinic]

double, I'm sorry to hear about your father,

There are multiple causes of strokes and these are a bit out of my field of expertise. The underlying mechanism is a loss of blood supply and death or injury to the brain tissue. This is usually secondary to a rupture of the blood vessels in the brain from weakening or injury (ie...aneurysm or bad hypertension), or a clogging of the blood vessel from a blood clot or other material like atherosclerosis.  Sometimes the strokes can be small and undetectable or quite large.

There are other more uncommon causes of strokes which include arterial injury from traumatic mechanisms. Again this is out of my field, but usually imaging modalities such as ultrasound, mri or CT scan should be able to detect this type of injury.

I hope this helps. Again I'm sorry to hear about your father.