MADISON, Wis. – The drummer is the heartbeat of a rock ‘n’ roll band, but Dec. 26, 2024, the heartbeat of the band, Ironplow, stopped — literally.
The Madison-area band was playing a set at the Gamma Ray Bar in Madison, and in the middle of a cover of the Black Sabbath song “NIB,” Rökker, as he goes by, the band’s drummer, suddenly fell backwards off his stool, arms still moving as if to play the drums, and collapsed. He was suffering a cardiac arrest.
Almost immediately, family and members of the audience got on stage, some of whom were medical personnel, and began to administer emergency CPR.
First responders arrived in six minutes, used a defibrillator to stabilize his heart and took Rökker to the emergency department at University Hospital.
Once there, an entire team of cardiologists, radiologists, nurses and cardiac surgeons jumped into action to determine what caused Rökker to collapse and to repair his heart. They determined that he had a cardiac arrest caused by an arrhythmia, or when the heart beats too fast, slow or at an irregular rate. Through imaging, the team found this was likely caused by the blockages in several arteries to the heart.
The team also learned that Rökker’s left ventricle didn’t pump blood properly, so he was not a candidate for bypass surgery. To get blood flowing, the care team needed to open his arteries, so an interventional cardiologist used a catheter to place stents — tiny, tube-like scaffolds — that hold them open. Because the left side of his heart wasn’t functioning properly, he was also at risk of a future cardiac arrest, so a tiny defibrillator was placed in his chest to jumpstart it should it stop beating.
While the team at UW Health was able to get his heart functioning again, it was the people at the scene who gave him a chance to survive, according to Dr. Maryl Johnson, heart failure and transplant cardiologist, UW Health, who cared for him a day after he was stabilized in the emergency department.
“The quick response by those in the crowd to perform CPR at the concert was critical,” said Johnson, who is also a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “If he were without blood flow for even a few minutes, it would have greatly reduced the chances for him to recover with heart function and brain capacity; time is muscle, time is brain cells.”
Rökker had no indication that day, or in the past, that his heart was in this kind of condition, he said.
“I was up on stage, playing drums, and I had no feeling anything was wrong, but two beats into a measure, I just fell over backward,” Rökker said.
Playing the drums wasn’t the only thing that kept him busy; he also hosts the “Max Ink Radio” show based in Madison. The show features local musical artists, which is a passion for Rökker, both in and out of the studio. He is also a concert promoter, often booking local acts at events like the Atwood Fest, a music festival in Madison. For 27 years, prior to his radio show, he founded and produced “Maximum Ink,” a magazine that featured news about the Madison music scene.
“Music is my life,” he said. “I’ve been involved with music since I was a little kid; I grew up in the music industry.”
Following his hospital stay, Rökker’s care team widened to include cardiac rehabilitation specialists, which meant he would have to do something he was not accustomed to — exercise.
He was paired with Heather Grant, an exercise physiologist at UW Health.
“Rökker had been through a lot when he first came to us,” Grant said. “It was remarkable that he survived his cardiac arrest, but he had excellent care at University Hospital, and came to us really ready to start rehab and get back to his normal life,” she said.
Rökker first met with Grant’s team twice at UW Health East Madison Hospital to gauge his ability to perform exercise and to develop a plan to get him back to health, including a mini stress test to determine what his body can handle safely. Grant also talked with him about what he can do away from the hospital to continue his rehabilitation.
The focus initially was to get Rökker doing aerobic exercise to get his heart rate and blood pressure up, like walking. The hospital has a variety of equipment and Rökker was encouraged to attend rehab three days per week for exercise, education and diet counseling. The goal was to get him to do 30 minutes of exercise daily. Outside of his appointments with Grant’s team, he also met with a personal trainer at a local fitness center to keep progressing.
While Grant’s focus at first was to assess his ability to exercise safely, it would soon shift to helping Rökker understand risks in the future, such as diet, blood pressure and weight, and how to maintain his fitness to give him the ability to do the things he wants to do later in life, she said.
These activities were not a part of Rökker’s life prior to his work with Grant, but he embraced them fully, she said.
“His attitude was a huge positive for Rökker, it really set him up to make these lifestyle changes work and set him up for success,” Grant said.
While Rökker may be out of the hospital and progressing, his care team still keeps a close eye on him to ensure he continues to recover well, according to Johnson.
“It’s a process, it’s not that you come in and there is an event and you are fine,” she said. “We are still optimizing the medications for him, continuing to monitor his situation.”
During his rehabilitation, Rökker took on another mission, raising awareness of cardiac arrest and helping the community he loves embrace readiness at concert venues. He began working with area venues to have automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, on hand.
Due to his attitude, exercise and the vigilance of his care team, Rökker was able to start playing the drums, and almost nine months later, he took the stage Sept. 14 at The Crucible in Madison with Ironplow.
“Here I am nine months later, working out all the time and back to playing the drums,” Rökker said. “It’s a miracle.”
