WIP host Big Daddy Graham back in the hospital: ‘He’s just having the worst year’

“It just keeps going.”

That’s all Ava Graham, daughter of longtime 94.1 WIP host Big Daddy Graham, could say following the latest health setback for her father.

Graham, 66, is back in the ER just weeks after returning home following an 88-day recovery from a spinal cord injury in July that left him paralyzed from the waist down.

“He has pneumonia in both of his lungs, he has an inflamed kidney, and he has a necrotic femur, so there’s dead skin on the back of his leg,” Ava Graham, who also works on-air at the station, said on the WIP Morning Show Tuesday. “That’s the biggest thing they’re going to have to address right now.”

Avascular necrosis, also called osteonecrosis, is the death of bone tissue caused by a lack of blood supply, according to the Mayo Clinic. If not treated, it can lead to the bone’s collapse.

“I’m not religious in any way, but I actually prayed for him, and I think everyone else should, too,” said Morning Show host Angelo Cataldi, whose friendship with Graham goes back 20 years. “He’s just having the worst year. The worst year.. . . He is such a strong guy, but he needs a break in here somewhere.”

Things had been looking up for Graham. He was released from Magee Rehabilitation Hospital earlier this month with hopes he would return soon to host his overnight show at the station. Despite having to come to terms with the likely prospect of never being able to walk again, the longtime sports talker and comedian has managed to remain positive.

“Here’s the bright side of everything: I reunited with some friends I hadn’t seen in years. And some people really went out of their way to visit me down here, including Pat Croce, Dick Vermeil, and others,” Graham said earlier this month. “I got to live the It’s a Wonderful Life thing without dying.”