Welcome to Pray for Gabriella .com

Gabriella Marie was born on December 27, 2009 a beautiful, healthy 9lb. 12oz. baby girl.  At 10 days old she was taken to the emergency room with a grunt when she would exhale.  The events that spiraled from there will never be forgotten.

           She was flown by helicopter to Children’s Hospital in St. Louis where she was diagnosed with an Enterovirus that caused Myocarditis.  Basically, a very common virus that causes sniffles or a fever in most kids caused Gabby’s heart to become inflamed which resulted in multiple system organ failure.   Her kidneys, her liver, her lungs, her heart...her whole body was not getting proper blood supply, causing all systems to fail.  It was a miracle she made it through the first 24 hours.

            Since that time Gabby has undergone numerous ups and downs.  She had some brain damage, from the lack of blood to her brain, causing seizures.  She is currently on two types of anti-seizure medications to prevent any further seizures/damage. 

Her kidneys were severely damaged and on Day 3 of her stay, a catheter was put in to start dialysis, which would do the work of the kidneys.  At week 6, a doctor told us that there was no chance of Gabby’s kidneys coming back and that she would be on dialysis forever and would probably die in the first year of her life from kidney failure.  On March 30^th, 10 weeks after dialysis was started and 18 days after surgery, Gabriella was taken off dialysis for good!  She’s still on a pretty hefty regimen of diuretics to help her produce urine, but her kidneys are working!

Her liver was damaged as well causing severe jaundice and scarring of the liver.  It inflamed to over twice its size, taking over a large portion of her belly and causing increased pressure in her lungs.  Currently, her liver numbers all look normal or very close to normal, so we’re just waiting for it to return to normal size.

One of the valves in her heart, the mitral valve, was severely damaged causing blood to regurgitate, or back up, into her lungs.  This was repaired by an open heart surgery on March 12^th.  It successfully took the regurgitation from severe to mild-moderate.  Since that time she has been on a steady path of recovery.  She has been trying to come off the ventilator since surgery and is successful as long as she doesn’t get an infection in her lungs!

Gabby’s fight is not over.  To make it out of the ICU she needs to come off the ventilator.  Once she leaves the ICU she’ll go to a step-down unit where they’ll see if her stomach will tolerate foods and if she will be able to suck from a bottle.  She has already started some physical and occupational therapy, but very minimally.  When she makes it out of the hospital, and we’re not sure when that will be, her rehab begins.  She’ll need months or even years of physical, occupational, and speech therapy.  Your donation will make sure that Gabby always gets the support she needs.  Thank you and please continue to pray for Gabriella.

Love, Michael & Jessica Deters

Please browse our site, view our family photos, and if possible, join us for upcoming benefit events.  Donations are greatly appreciated.