Soon after thrombolytic therapy was established as a therapy for ischemic stroke, our colleague Anthony Furlan, MD, famously circulated a cartoon of a computed tomographic (CT) scanner visible through the back doors of an ambulance, where a happy stroke physician had hung a bottle dripping tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) into the scanned patient’s arm. Because the time interval from stroke onset to initiation of thrombolysis after ischemic stroke is inversely related to the probability of disability-free recovery, prehospital initiation of thrombolytic therapy seemed a compelling and logical ambition, if one could rule out intracranial hemorrhage prior to treatment.