It never seems to end for Duquesne University coach Ron Everhart, who keeps making trips to a hospital for one reason or another.

"All the stuff you deal with in a lifetime seems to all be happening in recent months," Everhart said. "You can only hope it's all over with."

Before catching the bus to the airport Saturday for the trip to Massachusetts, Everhart spent time visiting Almamy Thiero, a 6-foot-9 reserve on the basketball team who is in Mercy Hospital indefinitely as doctors treat him for blood clots in his lungs. Thiero has been moved out of intensive care.

"He'll be there for a while. Right now, he's enduring the pain while the doctors are trying to find the right combination of blood thinners to get him back to normal," Everhart said. "Thank God, he's had it [blood clots in the lung] before, so he knows what's going on in his body. It could have been even worse if he had waited."

Thiero, a graduate student who transferred this season from Memphis, missed most of the 2003-04 season after blood clots were discovered in his lungs. Because he was experiencing some problems early Friday morning, he admitted himself to the hospital.

Duquesne's players either called or went to see Thiero Friday night, but he was asleep.

"We'll see him as a team when we get back from Massachusetts," Everhart said. "Looking back, you could probably think this was hanging over him. He told me this is why he could never get in shape. Every time he ran hard, he got too tired."

Everhart, meanwhile, is hoping to be cleared by the doctors later this week so he can start getting back in shape. He spent five days last month at UPMC Passavant Hospital in the North Hills with a gastrointestinal ailment.

"I have to be careful with dietary stuff and I'm still on medicine, but I'm in recovery mode," he said. "I'm looking to get cleared to exercise and lift weights. That will force me to get back to a healthy lifestyle."

Everhart took his 8-year old daughter, Gianna, to Passavant Hospital Friday after she hurt her left arm while falling off a sliding board at school.

"She's in a splint and a sling," he said. "We'll take her back Monday for X-rays and an assessment. She'll probably have to put it in a cast."

Going to a hospital is nothing new for Everhart, who spent countless sleepless hours at Mercy Hospital after five of Duquesne's players were wounded in a shooting after a party on campus, Sept. 17.

The most critically wounded were Sam Ashaolu and Stuard Baldonado. Ashaolu had one of the bullets surgically removed from his head, and fragments of the other still are lodged in his skull. He has not returned to school, but plans to take summer classes if all goes well. Baldonado is doing rehab to rebuild the muscle and regain the 15 pounds he lost after he was shot in the elbow and lower back.

"I probably can write about medical stuff more than most coaches," Everhart said. He added with a laugh, "I would like to trade this time [in hospitals] for recruiting time."