A beloved Wisconsin high school football coach died from his stage 4 cancer after the life-saving chemotherapy drug he needed for his treatment became unavailable due to a nationwide shortage.
Jeff Bolle, the varsity football and baseball coach at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, lost his cancer battle at age 60 in December.
Bolle thought he had tweaked his while back working out in October 2022.
However, after months of pain, he went to the doctor and was diagnosed with bile duct cancer — a rare but aggressive form of the disease with a low survival rate, according to Today.com.
The Wisconsin native started undergoing chemotherapy in October 2023 as doctors hoped that the drug treatment and surgery could prolong his life.
Doctors were able to remove most of the cancerous tumor festering next to his liver, and signs were looking promising as the high school counselor underwent four rounds of chemo before the unthinkable happened.
The vital chemotherapy drug he was taking, cisplatin, saw a nationwide shortage and he was unable to continue his treatment in May 2023.
He was only two rounds short of completing his treatment when he was forced to stop.
“His cancer was just continuing to grow, and his bile ducts were getting compromised because the cancer was pushing on them even more. He was really getting so very sick. It was horrible,” his wife, Connie Bolle, told the outlet.
“He was never able to get on cisplatin (again).”
Unfortunately, in September, “there was really nothing else they could do, which was hard to hear,” Connie Bolle said.
“There was no immunotherapy. There was no other chemotherapy,” she said.
By then, the University of Central Florida alumnus had to walk away from his job as a school counselor, but his love for coaching persisted even in his darkest days.
He continued coaching football and showed up for his players multiple times a week and for their games.
“Jeff loved coaching and mentoring, and had the patience and skills to connect and lead students from all walks of life with compassion and purpose,” his obituary read.
His love for coaching was so strong that he even attended the games and sat on the sidelines in a wheelchair as his cancer worsened.
“I don’t know how Jeff did it because he could barely stand, honestly. At that point, he was probably down to about 140 pounds,” Connie Bolle said.
Connie Bolle said he would rate game films on his laptop while in the intensive care unit.
“The Marquette University High School ended up winning the division one state championship football title, and they were not predicted to be the one (to win),” she told the outlet. “Jeff made it to every single one of the games.”
She believes her husband’s life was prolonged by his commitment to his players to finish that season.
“He knew how important it was for these high school kids,” She said. “Some of the seniors had journeyed with Jeff for four years.”
His care of others shined through until the final days of his life while he was in hospice care, Connie Bolle said.
“He really cared about other people not getting these chemotherapy drugs,” she says. “He would still be sad today that people are still dealing with this.”
Jeff Bolle died on Dec. 29, 2023 — after seven months without the life-saving drug treatment.
“I just keep wondering, ‘What if we had gotten the cisplatin? Could it have slowed his cancer down?’” Connie Bolle told Today.
Jeff Bolle is only one of thousands of cancer patients who have struggled in the United States to access chemotherapy drugs as the nation grapples with one of the most impactful chemo shortages in history.
At least four chemotherapy drugs — methotrexate, pluvicto, cisplatin and carboplatin — have been and continue to be on the Food and Drug Administration drug shortage list since Jeff Bolle’s death.
In October, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network surveyed 29 cancer centers across the country and found that 72% reported a shortage of carboplatin, and 59% still see a shortage of cisplatin.
Both drugs are used to treat a wide variety of cancers.
The chemotherapeutic agents being hit the hardest are the ones often used for patients with incurable cancer and agents used in oncological imaging, Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, told Today.
Fifteen oncology agents are seeing shortages as of April 2024, according to the FDA’s list.
The FDA said it “recognizes the potential impact that lack of availability of certain products may have on health care providers and patients” in a statement provided to Today.com.
“While the agency does not manufacture drugs, and cannot require a pharmaceutical company to make a drug, make more of a drug, or mandate who a pharmaceutical company chooses to sell its product to (among lawful purchasers), the public should rest assured the FDA is working closely with numerous manufacturers and others in the supply chain to understand, mitigate and prevent or reduce the impact of intermittent or reduced availability of certain products.”
