When Greeta Cherayil Hoffbauer started feeling tired during a weekend getaway to Okauchee Lake in 2010, she hardly expected a stroke to be the culprit. But when Dr. Thomas Connor, an ophthalmologist at Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin who was among Hoffbauer’s friends at the lake, noticed her speech slurring for no apparent reason and her eye reflexes abnormal, he suggested they head to the emergency room. There at Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital, after confirmation of a stroke, the middle-aged Brookfield resident was administered a clot-busting drug. Once physicians determined a piece of the clot was blocking all blood flow to the brain through the basilar artery, however, they realized the clot would have to be removed.
