Daniel Bell survived three brain surgeries on path to become a social worker
CCPA graduate student says medical struggles helped inspire his career path
Daniel Bell stood proudly from the center field seat at the Texas Rangers baseball stadium on a warm evening in mid-August 2021. He traveled there to watch one of his favorite baseball players, who had just been transferred to the visiting Oakland Athletics.
He didn’t expect anyone to notice as he held out his handmade sign: “I survived 3 brain surgeries to watch Josh Harrison play!”
But a few people did notice. They asked, “Is this real?” Another spectator told him, “Congratulations! Glad you’re here with us!”
Bell, 28, figured that maybe Harrison would give a wave or thumbs up — if he noticed the sign at all. But being at the game was a personal victory after a grueling series of medical procedures. And in May 2022, more than a year after fighting for his life, Bell graduated with a master’s degree in social work from Binghamton University.
For Bell, a native of the Washington, D.C., area, this degree sets him on his desired career path to help others facing medical struggles just as life- changing and burdensome as the one he’s spent a lifetime dealing with.
As a child, Bell was diagnosed with a condition called hydrocephalus, which results in a buildup of spinal fluid. It’s incurable, and for most of his life neurosurgeons have kept the condition at bay through implanting a specialized device that allows his spinal fluid to drain normally.
Bell’s challenges, both medical and academic, helped shape his career ambition. He wants to become a social worker in hospitals, preferably in an intensive care unit. He says it’s a way of giving back to the healthcare workers whose work has made it possible to earn that degree.
During the time spent at the hospital for the surgeries he received in 2021, Bell became attuned for how to advocate for himself as a patient.
“I kept thinking I am perfectly good at advocating for myself,” Bell says, “but how many people are in similar positions and have no way to know what questions to ask or have no one to hear them out?”
In late May 2021, Bell was at home when pains in his abdomen and neck forced him into an overnight stay at a hospital emergency room. What he learned from doctors was that the device managing his condition was no longer working.
Tests revealed the device, known as a shunt, had become infected.
The shunt had been repaired in January 2021, after it had been in place for 13 years, marking his first surgery that year. After the discovery of the infection, he had two surgeries between May and June in 2021. Before these three surgeries, he hadn’t required any surgical procedure for his condition since 2008.
Bell’s passion for baseball kept his spirits up during long weeks in the hospital — at one point he was hospitalized for 17 days. He’d watch baseball games from his hospital bed, but he was also committed to keeping up with all of his classwork.
Bell’s professors were flexible. They gave him extensions on assignments as needed. During that semester, he says, “my body was fighting me the entire time.”
“If I paused school, I would pause the work that needs to be done in standing with those who do not feel as if they have a voice. I would be pausing a passion I have had for a long time,” Bell says. “I knew I couldn’t stop, because I’ve been given all this help.”
The motivation to finish his degree had also been fueled by the response to his photo from that baseball game in Texas. When he sent that photo to a journalist from MLB.com, he noted, “Missed Josh at the game.”
Later, the journalist replied, “I’ll make sure he sees it.”
By the next morning, Bell’s Twitter profile had received some 300 notifications.
One of them, a message from MSM Sports, stated something would be coming his way.
In October 2021, it came: a signed jersey from Harrison, along with a letter from the player’s agent. It invited Bell to a game in the 2022 season, and maybe to get him on the field for batting practice.