Baby Gabriella Gil Beats Her 15% Chance of Survival

November 13, 2009 by Cathy Ribble
Filed under: News

Gabriella Gil weighed just over a single pound when she was born four months early. At eight months and 12 pounds, she’s beating the odds and has already faced many life challenges.

Maruja Gil developed problems during her pregnancy and was forced to deliver at only 23 weeks. Doctors gave her tiny newborn daughter a 15% chance of survival. Baby Gabby was so tiny and her condition so fragile that her parents were unable to hold her until she was about two months old.

“It’s hard to believe but Gabby actually weighed less than a can of soda,” her mother Maruja told Good Morning America. “It’s kind of shocking but at the same time there’s hope, there’s a life, there’s a soul in this little baby.”

According to the GMA report, Gabby was diagnosed with lung and eye disease as well as liver failure shortly after her birth. Another common preemie problem, bleeding of the brain, also developed. The medical staff at Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami performed numerous risky and dangerous procedures including open heart surgery and lasik eye surgery.

Gabby did well with the procedures, and her loving and nurturing parents were by her side every day.

“She grabbed my finger and I told her, Gabby, we’re here together,” Maruja told GMA. “Hold on because we’re going to be here for the rest of our lives.”

Gabby relies on a breathing tube for now, but she is headed home and expected to live a normal life.

“There are challenges,” said Dr. Shahnaz Duara, neonatologist at Holtz Children’s Hospital. “But when you think about what it took to get here, it’s pretty amazing.”

“She’s our angel,” Maruja told GMA reporters. “No matter what you’re going through if you believe there’s hope and there’s love then the miracle is going to happen.”