A Milwaukee football coach has become the latest victim of the devastating drug shortage crisis threatening the lives of patients with diabetes, cancer and deadly infections.
Jeff Bolle, 60, a high school counselor and football coach, succumbed to bile duct cancer last December after doctors ran out of his vital chemotherapy drug, cisplatin.
Bolle had surgery and four rounds of chemotherapy to remove a grapefruit-sized tumor in his bile duct next to his liver.
Doctors said he needed two more to kill all remaining cancer cells – but Mr Bolle was told the cancer center where he was treated did not have the drug.
Instead, he languished for months without cancer-slowing medication.
His story comes as thousands of patients in the US struggle to access medication amid a protracted shortage that has affected more than just chemotherapy drugs, but also diabetes medications, antibiotics, and anesthetics.
Before he died, Mr Bolle and his wife Connie shared their story publicly in the hope of garnering attention for the issue and to pressure federal action to fix it.
A recent survey of the nation’s 29 largest cancer centers found that 72 percent had an insufficient supply of the chemo drug carboplatin and 59 percent are still seeing a shortage of cisplatin. Both drugs are frequently used to treat a wide variety of cancers.