Stroke affecting both sides. How is this possible?

Talk to his cardiologist. Possibly both carotids are blocked.

I read that if a stroke occurs in the brain stem then both sides of the body can be effected. Talk to his doctor.

Strokes can affect either or both sides of the body depending on where the damage is and how fast he sought medical treatment. If one gets to an ER within about 3 hrs. (I think I remember that exact time frame) a drug can be given Streptokinase that will reverse a lot of the damage.

Yes, please report on what doc says, mri or ultrasound type things might well show that both sides of brain are damaged....I am wondering if he can speak at all? If he cannot speak volitionally, can he say things from memory, such as counting to ten, reciting the ABCs, etc? Volitional speech is controlled by the left side of the brain, and speech from memory is from the right side.

Grace + Peace,
Bob

That's a very good question. Is it possible that he had two strokes at the same time in both hemispheres of the brain?

You are right, it does usually affect one side of his body. When you find out please tel the rest of us. My husband was having what the dr was calling little strokes but it was only affecting his lower extremities and causing him to fall. I had never heard of a stroke affecting both legs but not arms. He did have slurred speech but no drooping eyelid. I took him to a different dr who took him off his blood pressure meds and said his pressure was dropping too much when he stood causing him to black outl. No more falls or black outs. So a second opinion is always worth a shot.

Talk to his doctor.