Wisconsin high school football coach unable to get chemo due to shortage dies at 60
Sometimes Connie Bolle wonders if her husband, Jeff Bolle, 60, would still be alive if things had been different last spring.
Sometimes Connie Bolle wonders if her husband, Jeff Bolle, 60, would still be alive if things had been different last spring.
After being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, the high school football coach and counselor started chemotherapy in 2023, but he had to stop abruptly when the drug he received, cisplatin, became harder to find as part of a nationwide shortage of chemotherapy drugs.
“I just keep wondering, ‘What if we had gotten the cisplatin? Could it have slowed his cancer down? she tells TODAY.com. “Would he have been able to coach even more? Would he have been stronger? Would he have felt better? ... It’s always a second guess.”
While grappling with stage 4 cancer, Jeff Bolle continued coaching high school football for one last season. What a season it was as his team won the state championship.
In 2022, Jeff Bolle, of Milwaukee, learned he had bile duct cancer, which has a dismal long-term survival rate. At the time, doctors hoped that surgery and chemotherapy could prolong his life. He was in good health prior to his diagnosis, which made everyone feel optimistic.
Rating: 5