PHILADELPHIA - Former Purdue and Warren Central wide receiver David Bell has filed a civil lawsuit against a major Pennsylvania healthcare system, seeking more than $300 million in damages over an allegedly unnecessary surgery that cut his NFL career short and nearly proved fatal.
The complaint alleges that 15 defendants participated in a financial scheme that induced the plaintiff, Bell, to undergo a procedure based on misrepresented MRI findings. According to court documents, Bell was not a candidate for the surgery, which caused a severe injury requiring emergency, life-saving intervention.
"We undertook a year-long investigation into this matter in which a number of truly world-leading surgeons and radiologists examined the matter, with many of them doing so on a no-fee basis," Bell’s attorney Brad Sohn said. "The findings were nothing short of astonishing and give us a high degree of confidence we can prove that hundreds of millions of dollars going to the defendants, individually and collectively, to perform these surgeries, were prioritized over the basic medical principle of ‘first do no harm.’"
Co-counsel Nathan Werksman echoed those sentiments in a statement.
"What happened to our client, an elite NFL athlete, is just plain wrong," Werksman said. "Even worse, it was totally preventable. We look forward to fighting every step of the way for him and the justice he deserves."
The lawsuit stems from allegations of medical misconduct involving multiple practitioners across the healthcare system.
Bell was born and raised in Indianapolis, graduated from Warren Central in 2019 and played for Purdue from 2019 to 2021 before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns, for whom he played from 2021 to 2025. He retired after complications from a surgery made attempting to play professional football “life-threatening,” according to attorney Sohn.