Dan Rolfes is a coach because of relationships.
Now in his early 50s, the Incarnate Word Academy athletic director and girls’ basketball coach started his journey toward that title as a child, playing for his father.
His first volunteer coaching gig was also because of a relationship.
“In college, I was dating my wife, Lisa, and her younger sister’s middle school team needed a coach,” Dan said. “I volunteered and enjoyed the heck out of it and just kind of kept going.”
“Sports has been our lives,” Lisa, who coached the same sister’s middle school soccer team, said. “It's part of our kids' lives, and we've just met this great community from sports.”
Dan discovered a career and a calling that, 25 years later, holds many fond memories. Most of those memories are of his players, some of whom were his kids or the kids of former players.
The 13 MSHSAA state championship rings are part of those memories. But that 13th ring will always be a turning point in Dan’s life. It’s the one he wasn’t there for.
‘I Don’t Remember Anything’
Dan and the Incarnate Word Academy team bussed from St. Louis to Columbia on March 14, 2024, the day before their state semifinal game at Mizzou Arena.
“We always go down the day before, and there was a big hailstorm in St. Louis,” Dan said. “I remember the bus driver didn't want to drive through it, so we waited. I remember my hotel room had a huge bathtub, and I sent a picture to the family group text. And then I don't remember anything after that.”
Lisa and the Rolfes’ youngest, Kate, decided to go to Friday’s semifinal game on a whim. They drove to Mizzou Arena together and watched Incarnate Word win.
Knowing Dan wanted to get right into watching film for Saturday’s championship game, Lisa and Kate got ready to drive back home. Then Kate got a phone call from Dan.
“Kate said, ‘Dad’s not feeling well, he wants to see us before we go,’” Lisa said. “And when we got to him, he was just really, really off. Completely flustered, not himself.”
Lisa, a home health nurse, asked Kate to pull the car around so they could take Dan across the street to MU Health Care’s ER at University Hospital. They had driven less than 50 feet before Dan slumped over in the car, unresponsive.
Teamwork in Crunch Time
Lisa started CPR. Kate called 911. Someone brought over an automatic external defibrillator. Everything was a blur. When EMS arrived, Lisa stepped back and tried to collect herself.
“It was better that I was there, and I knew how to react, but worse because I knew what they were talking about,” Lisa said.
In triage at the ER, a scan of Dan’s heart showed one of his coronary arteries was completely blocked, a STEMI heart attack of the widow-maker artery.
Interventional cardiologist Poorna Karuparthi, MD, and critical care cardiologist Vrinda Trivedi, MD, were on call that evening. The Rolfes family got to know Dr. Trivedi and fellow critical care cardiologist Cristina Danila, MD, well. There were many faces and names to learn in the coming days.
“Dan was the sickest person in our ICU,” Trivedi said. “His left anterior descending artery was blocked, which is commonly known as a widow-maker heart attack. When that artery is blocked, because it supplies a large percentage of blood to the heart muscle, individuals can get very sick very quickly.”
But Dan was in the right place to get the lifesaving care he needed. MU Health Care’s University Hospital is a Level I STEMI Center. This is the highest possible designation given to hospitals by the state for heart attack care.
Dan’s team worked for almost an hour, administering CPR and defibrillation shocks. They needed to get a consistent heartbeat to safely move him to the cardiac catheterization lab to unblock his artery.
“I’ve talked to so many doctors and nurses since, and I don’t know that anybody else would have worked on someone that long, if they would even have taken a chance on getting him to the cardiac cath lab,” Lisa said. “His doctors made a break for it because they knew clearing that blockage was so important.
“I found out later he coded in the elevator, he coded in the lab, but we were holding on for every little bit of hope.”
Small Steps to Recovery
In the cardiac cath lab, Dr. Karuparthi cleared Dan’s blocked artery and placed stents to ensure blood flowed through his heart. Dr. Karuparthi also connected Dan’s heart to a specialized external pump, called an Impella, that handled circulating Dan’s blood while his heart recovered.
But as Dan’s care team watched him, it was clear they had more issues to address. He had an abdominal bleed caused by a tear in his liver and was suffering from kidney failure.
“It just felt like one thing after another,” Lisa said. “Like you can never catch your breath. I don’t know that I ever felt we were out of the woods.”
MU Health Care’s surgery and nephrology teams, including heart surgeon Lindsey Saint, MD, and critical care surgeon Salman Ahmad, MD, were there to step in when Dan needed them.
“Dan’s care and recovery really took a village, and he is one of the greatest success stories I’ve been part of at MU Health Care,” Trivedi said. “It was a great team effort and everyone involved in his care performed at the highest level of their expertise.”
Day by day, Dan made progress. After nearly a week in the hospital, his heart was strong enough to work without the Impella pump, and his breathing tube was removed.
“It was like a pit crew, or like a basketball team,” Dan said. “Everyone had to do their part, and if any of those parts is not taken care of, I might not be alive. This whole hospital is a team.”
Lisa stayed in the hospital with Dan, and their three kids found a place to stay so they could visit daily. On Easter weekend at the end of March, Dan’s extended family came to visit.
“We were together for Easter, we all went outside in MU Health Care’s Healing Garden, and it happened to be a nice day,” Dan said. “I remember sitting outside for a few hours and not wanting to go back to my room, because I hadn’t been outside in 20 days. Sitting there surrounded by love from my family was unbelievable.”
‘I Wouldn’t Be Here Today Without Her’
A few weeks later, Dan left the hospital in a wheelchair to continue his recovery closer to home in St. Louis. Though his rehab process was difficult and slow, Lisa was there with him for every step.
“I know Lisa’s a great nurse, but I never knew she’d have to do something like that for me,” Dan said. “I’m forever grateful. And not only did she save my life that night by giving me CPR right away, she’s been the driving force helping me rehab and get back to walking. We walked every day, even if it was just one house down, and the next day, she’d say, ‘We’re doing two houses today.’ I wouldn’t be here today without her.”
As he recovered, Dan made sure the people important to him knew how grateful he was. He also stressed how important it is to know whether you’re at risk of a heart attack through tests like a calcium CT scan.
It was a wake-up call for Dan, who is using his second chance to make sure his loved ones don’t have to go through what he did. In America, the survival rate of cardiac arrests outside of a hospital is less than 6%.
“My mental approach to life is so different,” Dan said. “I found out real quick that death is a reality. I want to be a grandpa, I want to see my kids get married, and I don’t know how much I thought about that prior to this.”
Returning to coaching was another goal for Dan. As his recovery progressed, his doctors said it was safe. It was a relief and a joy to resume coaching his Incarnate Word team a few months later.
Another team, in Columbia, was never far from his mind.
The Rolfes family returned to MU Health Care ahead of his team’s season opener for the 2024-2025 season, which by luck was in Columbia, to thank the doctors, nurses and staff who saved Dan’s life.
“I thought coming here would be beneficial to me, but so many people told me how much it meant to them, too,” Dan said. “They see you at your lowest point, they take great care of you, and seeing me get better and succeed in recovery, and them playing a role in that, I hope they feel gratification in what they do. I’m sure like a lot of jobs they don’t hear, ‘Thank you’ and ‘I appreciate you’ and ‘I love you’ enough.”
MU Health Care’s cardiac ICU staff gifted Dan a basketball signed by the members of his care team from every corner of the hospital.
“It doesn’t seem like enough to say, ‘Thank you’ to the staff here,” Lisa said. “We got such great care, and we wouldn’t be here without them. They never gave up on Dan.”