ATLANTA — As a two-sport athlete playing baseball and football, there's rarely a moment that 14-year-old Daniel, a freshman at Blessed Trinity High School in Roswell, doesn't dream of being on the field.
"Loves sports, especially the Braves," said Daniel's mom, Mary Ellen Evangelista.
But it's his perseverance off the field that has delivered inspiration and motivation to his family, friends and teammates in the midst of a daunting, life-threatening battle.
Mary Ellen and her husband, Drew, learned that on Oct. 25, their son had been complaining about a bad headache during school.
"Interestingly enough, he didn't want to go to practice, but he said, 'I'm a tough guy, can tough this out,'" Mary Ellen said.
Determination is just one of the qualities Daniel's parents used to describe him, which came into play the day Daniel decided to go to his high school football practice.
His parents recalled later learning he told people he was feeling sick and that he threw up at practice.
"I was on my way up to get him from practice when I got the call from the coach that he's really sick, and they needed to call the ambulance," Mary Ellen said.
She remembered telling them to take him to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, asking if she should come to the field or meet them at the emergency room.
Within 15 minutes, she pulled up to practice to find her son passed out on the ground.
"I think he knew I was there, but the last thing he said to me was, ‘Help me,'" Mary Ellen cried as she recalled the moment she said her world stopped.
Daniel was rushed to Children’s for emergency surgeries, the doctor’s cutting off his beloved Braves shirt, with no time to spare.
"He had an AVM brain bleed on the left side of his brain," said Katie Brown, a speech-language pathologist at Children's. "There'd be no reason for his brain to have been scanned before now because he's been a typically developing normal kid. And so when the brain bleed happens, it's it's important to get to the hospital really quickly."
An arteriovenous malformation (AVM), sometimes better known as a blood clot, is a tangle of blood vessels that irregularly connects arteries and veins, which then disrupts blood flow and oxygen to that area.
Brown explained that with two brain bleeds, Daniel was left with a potentially deadly diagnosis.
"Dr. Boydston looked me in the eye and just said, 'We don't know if he's going to make it off the table,'" his mom said, as she began praying for the best and knowing every minute he was on the table was another minute he was alive with them.
If Daniel did make it off the table, his parents said the outlook for their son going back to a "normal" life didn't look good.
"They didn't know if he was going to be able to talk again, to understand us, to be able to do schoolwork," Drew said.
But Daniel, with his determination and the resolve of the doctors at Children's, survived. In fact, he isn't just surviving, but those at Children's said he is thriving.
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Daniel's road to recovery
"And now he has come all the way to be at Day Rehab with us getting ready to go back to school," Brown said.
Brown noted Daniel's motor skills came back quickly. However, she said his thinking skills were impacted more.
His competitive nature comes into play in therapy, though, as he played games with Brown during his latest session.
He joked that his biggest loss was the Braves shirt that had to get cut off before going into his first surgery.
"Why can't you just take off my shirt?" Daniel asked, saying it was a shirt resembling the jersey of his favorite Braves player, Michael Harris II.
It’s the Braves player Daniel says he’s always looked up to.
It's also the Braves star who surprised Daniel during his therapy appointment at Children's on Monday. His reaction? Absolutely priceless.
Harris didn't come empty-handed. Along with a jersey and other gifts, Harris also brought some words of advice for the young and aspiring ball player.
"Be great and do some of the things you dream of doing," he said, earlier saying once he heard about what happened to Daniel, he knew he had to come see him.
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Michael Harris surprises Daniel in heartwarming moment
When 11Alive spoke with Daniel, he laughed as he admitted he was still in shock from what happened an hour earlier.
"One of the best things that could have happened," Daniel said.
It's a surprise that Daniel said will only add to the motivation he already has to get better and back on the field.