BANGOR – Amid all of the inherent pressures that go along with coaching a high-profile high school basketball team in Eastern Maine, Houlton coach Jerry Adams had much more weighty matters on his mind as his season headed down the homestretch.

Adams, who made his fifth straight coaching appearance with the Shiretowners and seventh straight overall at the Bangor Auditorium Saturday, and his family have had to deal with a life-threatening condition afflicting younger brother Larry, who has been in a medically induced coma since Jan. 7.

“He called me to come to his apartment one morning,” Jerry Adams recalled. “He was sitting in a recliner and said he was bleeding, so I took him to the hospital and they thought he was bleeding from the wall of his bowels.”

The condition required immediate surgery. Larry made it through surgery on his small intestine fine, but four hours after he came out, the walls of part of his large intestine, or colon, began to rupture and he suffered massive bleeding.

“They didn’t give us much hope because he’d just had an operation and was weakened quite a bit, but then he battled through the second operation, too,” said Adams, one of six athletic and active brothers and sisters (younger sister Nancy died of a brain aneurysm at age 34).

This time, doctors purposely put Larry, whose immune system had been severely compromised, into a coma to better increase his chances of recovery. The date was Sunday, Jan. 7, Larry Adams’ 46th birthday.

Jerry Adams said his brother made it through the second surgery, but then his lungs started to fill up as a result of a post-operative complication called Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

“His lung collapsed and a doctor said he was a minute away from dying,” said Jerry.

Larry was stabilized and transported to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor for further treatment. He has been on a ventilator ever since.

“It certainly puts things in life in perspective,” said Jerry Adams, who is only two years older than his brother.

Despite losing a 57-55 heartbreaker to East Class B top seed Camden Hills Saturday, Adams considered Saturday a good day because of the great news he got when he went back to the hospital that night.

“We went over after our ballgame, but we got a positive thing in that they brought the sedative level down so he could respond to our voices,” Jerry explained. “I asked him to move his right foot and he did.”

Doctors are still not encouraged by Larry’s condition, but Jerry and the rest of the Adams family remain hopeful, especially in light of how close to death Larry has been in the past.

“One doctor gave him a zero percent chance, one said two, and the other said four,” said Jerry Adams. “Last Monday, one doctor recommended taking him off [the ventilator] and the others gave us very little hope of him recovering, but the family decided we’ve been with it this long, we’ll stick with it long-term.”

It’s easy to understand the Adams’ decision, given Larry’s penchant for surviving.

“He’s had cancer [lymphoma] and Hodgkin’s Disease both, 65 chemotherapy and radiation treatments, he’s had a triple bypass with three [shunts], a stroke, 19 angioplasties, three operations on his vertebrae…. And he lost his wife to cancer when he was 40,” Jerry said. “He’s certainly a fighter.”

Despite the emotional toll his brother’s distress was taking on Adams, he decided not to mention it to his team members.

“I’ve been very careful not to bring that up to the kids and never brought it into my practices because that would have just been one more thing for them to deal with,” Adams explained. “And for me, it was kind of nice to go to practices or games and take my mind off things, even if it was just for two hours a day.”

And even though the 2001 season ended with a loss for the 7-13 Shiretowners, Adams considered it a big success considering the Shires lost all five starters from last year’s tourney team and battled a tough schedule all season.

“I can’t say enough about this team, what it’s accomplished coming from where we started from,” Adams said. “I’m sad only because of what this team could have accomplished if not for the loss Saturday. I’ll say one thing. The Shiretowners will certainly be back next year.”

Hardy Husky

Mike Susi was one of the few Maine Central Institute players who wasn’t jumping around on the court after Saturday afternoon’s 65-59 victory over No. 4 Erskine Academy of South China.

The 6-foot-2 senior center had rolled his ankle with 31 seconds left in the game and went to the bench.

The injury failed to lessen his joy or optimism minutes after the game’s conclusion, however.

“Oh, I’ll be all right to play,” said a grinning Susi, who turned in a huge effort with 10 points and 17 rebounds. “As long as there isn’t any bone sticking out of there, I’ll be playing Wednesday night.”