Posts by: Brad Dell

Brad Dell

Brad Dell is a deaf 25-year-old with cystic fibrosis. Originally from Hawaii, he received a double-lung transplant from University of California at San Francisco in January 2017. When not traveling, drinking coffee, or reading comics, he's president of the Lung Transplant Foundation's NorCal chapter and head of columns at BioNews Services. (OK, he's still drinking coffee while he works.)

June 4, 2019June 3, 2019

Screwed Over Expectations, Pura Vida, and a New Normal

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

I was fully deaf, too weak to walk across my living room (I couldn’t reach my upstairs bedroom anymore), constantly coughing and vomiting, soaked in sweat and wheezing, too ... Read more

May 14, 2019May 14, 2019

In Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month, I Look Back to Anticipate the Future

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

The night I received my first Hill-Rom Vest — at age 5 — was a fun one. It was a beast of a machine in the mid-1990s, a white ... Read more

April 30, 2019April 26, 2019

Here’s What It Feels Like to Have Cystic Fibrosis

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

There’s a rattle in my chest when I inhale. I sweat and dig my nails into my palm. I feel it, microseconds of dread and fear as the rattling ... Read more

April 9, 2019April 5, 2019

Why I Shout My Story

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

A dad at the church I attend came up to me and said his newborn daughter had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. He looked tired; his motivation for telling ... Read more

April 2, 2019April 1, 2019

The Scenes in ‘Five Feet Apart’ that Tore My Heart

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

Heard enough about “Five Feet Apart” yet? I know you’re begging to read just one more piece about it, right? I saw the movie about a week after its ... Read more

March 26, 2019May 23, 2019

‘CFer’ or ‘Person with CF’? I’m a CFer and Proud of It

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

Note: I do not write on behalf of the entire CF community. No one does. This is about my preference. The most amusing, yet irritating, thing a person without ... Read more

March 19, 2019April 4, 2019

I’m Getting Better at Detecting Depression’s Creep and Shooing It Away

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

I shoulda seen it coming. (That’s what I always say in hindsight, once it hits.) Maybe I shoulda known when five people at church told me I look “really, ... Read more

March 5, 2019March 22, 2019

Don’t Distance Yourself from Your OG Carers

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

We sat in pristine sands shadowed by titanic sentries dubbed The Twelve Apostles. At the southern end of Australia, I assume they guard against Antarctic penguins, like how The ... Read more

February 19, 2019March 4, 2019

Brad Dell: The Man Without Fear, Almost

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

Imagine how much easier cystic fibrosis (CF) would be if we didn’t have fears. What if we stared death in the eye and laughed? Age 23 was destined to ... Read more

February 12, 2019February 27, 2019

A Life Intimate with Death Is Not a Life Deprived of Beauty

Columns, Victorious - a Column by Brad Dell

I gaze through a frosted window on a mountaintop near Lake Tahoe. It’s a church youth group retreat. The students play in the snow, sledding and laughing. I’m sipping ... Read more

Pin It on Pinterest