Wisconsin high school football coach, who couldn’t get chemotherapy drugs due to national shortage, dies at 60

A beloved Wisconsin high school football coach died of his stage 4 cancer after the life-saving chemotherapy drug he needed for his treatment became unavailable due to a nationwide shortage.

Jeff Bolle, varsity football and baseball coach at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, lost his battle with cancer at the age of 60 in December.

Bolle thought he had fine-tuned his training 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 cancer with a low survival rate, according to TODAY.com.

The Wisconsin native began chemotherapy in October 2023, with doctors hoping the drug treatment and surgery could prolong his life.

Doctors were able to remove most of the cancerous tumor that was festering near his liver, and the signs looked promising as the high school counselor underwent four rounds of chemo before the unthinkable happened.

The life-saving chemotherapy drug he was taking, cisplatin, experienced a nationwide shortage and he was unable to continue his treatment in May 2023.

He was just two rounds short of completing his treatment when he was forced to stop.

“His cancer continued to grow and his bile ducts were compromised because the cancer was straining them even more. He was getting really, really sick. It was horrible,” his wife, Connie Bolle, told the outlet.

“He was never able to take cisplatin (again).”

Unfortunately, by September, “they really couldn’t do anything else, 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 leave his job as a school counselor, but his love for coaching persisted even in his darkest days.

He continued to coach football and showed up for his players several 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 backgrounds with compassion and determination,” his obituary read.

His love for coaching was so strong that he even attended 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 up honestly. At that point he probably weighed about 140 pounds,” Connie Bolle said.

Connie Bolle said he would rate game films on his laptop while he was in the ICU.

“Marquette University High School ended up winning the state premier football championship, and it wasn’t predicted that they would be the only ones (to win),” she told the outlet . “Jeff was in every game.”

She believes her husband’s life was extended because of his commitment to his players to finish this season.

“He knew how important it was to these high school students,” she said. “Some of the older people had been traveling with Jeff for four years.”

His concern for others was evident until the last days of his life, when he was in hospice care, Connie Bolle said.

“He really cared that other people weren’t getting these chemotherapy drugs,” she says. “It would still be sad today if people were still faced with this.”

Jeff Bolle died on December 29, 2023, after seven months without receiving the drug treatment that saved his life.

“I keep asking myself, ‘What if we had gotten cisplatin?’ Could this have slowed down his cancer? Connie Bolle told TODAY.

Jeff Bolle is just one of thousands of cancer patients who have struggled to access chemotherapy drugs in the United States, as the country grapples with one of the most severe chemotherapy shortages Of the history.

At least four chemotherapy drugs – methotrexate, pluvicto, cisplatin and carboplatin – have been and continue to be on the Food and Drug Administration’s 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, a chemotherapy drug, and 59% still saw a shortage of cisplatin.

Both drugs are used to treat a wide variety of cancers.

The chemotherapeutic agents hardest hit are those often used for patients with incurable cancer and agents used in oncology imaging, Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, said today.

Fifteen oncology agents are currently in shortage as of April 2024, according to the FDA 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.

“Although the agency does not manufacture drugs and cannot require a drug company to make a drug, to make more of it, or to require a drug company to whom it chooses to sell its product (among legal purchasers ), the public should be assured that FDA is working closely with many manufacturers and others in the supply chain to understand, mitigate, and prevent or reduce the impact of intermittent or reduced availability of certain products.