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OXFORD — It was three months ago, Charlie Coles said, when he had serious questions about whether he was going to live or die.

While his Miami University men's basketball team was trying to survive in the 2007-08 postseason, the popular coach of the RedHawks was trying to survive, period.

"I was fighting my own battle," he said. "I knew what was going on with the team, but my bypass surgery was 14 hours. It was a very complex surgery. I had my doubts. My surgeon and cardiologist thought it was a cup of tea, but I didn't."

There have been a couple painful swerves in this health battle that Coles continues to fight. He tries to be optimistic.

"So, coach Coles, have the doctors got you straightened out?" An attempt to be, if not downright cheerful, at least not too heavy-handed.

"I think they think so," Coles said, "but I don't know. After a while, you get suspicious."

It's almost a miracle that Coles was sitting in his own office at Millett Hall on Wednesday, June 11. He had just completed a meeting with his coaches.

The 66-year-old Coles has lost weight. When he speaks in a quiet voice and gestures, it's without his usual animation. It seems deliberate, as if he has just started a long race and is pacing himself. And no wonder.

Since March 1, he has spent about five weeks in the hospital. He underwent heart bypass surgery. Then he had a bleeding ulcer. Then, on May 24, his gallbladder was removed.

It all started on Feb. 23 when the RedHawks arrived at Valparaiso University.

"I just didn't feel good the night before the game and the day of the game," he recalled. "I got the same feeling the day of the Ohio University game."

That day, March 1, he drove himself to McCullough-Hyde Hospital in Oxford. "My heart was racing and everything was out of control," he said. "They airlifted me to Fairfield Mercy Hospital. They wanted me to be down there with my cardiologist."

The bypass surgery was a success, but Coles was about to be ambushed again.

"I was only feeling sore," he said, "but then I developed a bleeding ulcer three days after I got home, so I had to go back. That was tough, because they had to keep giving me blood plasma. My blood would get low, and that was dangerous.

"I was out of the hospital for three weeks," Coles said. "I just didn't feel good. I was in a lot of pain, so they removed my gallbladder, which I guess was blocking my colon.

"I'm up and down during the day," he said. "For some people that's normal."

He didn't need to add the four words that were the obvious conclusion to that sentence: "but not for me."

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197

or pconrad@coxohio.com.

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