‘We’re gonna keep fighting’

Gabriellah Willis only weighed one pound when she was born prematurely — at 24 weeks — July 8, 2021.

Described by father, Chris, as his “little miracle baby,” Gabriellah was so small that his wedding ring was able to fit around her tiny wrist.

“They didn’t think that she would live,” Gabriellah’s mother, Emily, said. “The doctor had told me I might be having some complications as far as getting nutrients to her, but they said they were gonna do an ultrasound in another week. By the time the other week had rolled around, my feet had swollen up and I was having trouble breathing. I ended up being diagnosed with severe preeclampsia."

Severe preeclampsia is a serious blood pressure condition that can develop during pregnancy. People with preeclampsia often have high blood pressure (hypertension) and high levels of protein in their urine (proteinuria). Preeclampsia typically develops after the 20th week of pregnancy. It can also affect other organs in the body and be dangerous for both the mom and her developing fetus, according to Cleveland Clinic.

“The body was rejecting the baby,” Chris said. “There was also a growth issue.”

“There was a growth restriction to the baby where basically the placenta couldn’t get the nutrients, so she was smaller than she was supposed to be,” Emily said. “With the preeclampsia, it was causing a health syndrome to where all my organs were shutting down so they life-flighted me over to Plano and told me, ‘You’re having a baby.’”

Once Gabriellah was born, she was kept at Medical City Plano for the next 230 days, where she underwent several surgeries to treat everything from kidney failure to blood diseases.

“She had open heart surgery, and they went in and cut her chest open,” Chris said. “I remember it was the craziest thing for me as a father. I got to actually see her chest open and see her heart actually beating. That was just a very weird experience for me to see. But for her to come through that...”

"They said she wouldn't be able to cry because she was so small and her lungs would collapse, but she did cry,” Emily said. “They didn't think that she would live multiple times, but she overcame everything.”

Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come for young Gabriellah.

After being discharged from the hospital, she was later diagnosed with a rare liver cancer called hepatoblastoma.

According to the National Cancer Institute, hepatoblastoma is a cancer that forms in the tissues of the liver. It is the most common type of childhood liver cancer and usually affects children younger than 3 years of age.

“When we first heard of it, we didn't know anything about it," Chris said. "But come to find out, it's a very, very rare cancer that happens in premature babies. There's less than 1,000 cases, I think right now, so it’s extremely rare.”

Hepatoblastoma is so rare, in fact, that it is diagnosed in fewer than one in a million children, according to St. Jude’s Research Hospital.

“We had finally gotten to the point where we had put her in daycare for about a month, and she got the cancer diagnosis of hepatoblastoma, so that was really hard for us because we were looking forward to somewhat normalcy of at least getting her to where she would have a place to be around other children,” Emily said. “It's definitely been a process.”

Once the couple received the cancer diagnosis, they traveled to several local hospitals like Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas but were unable to find the help they needed.

“We did the same process in Houston, and there they were able to tell us that basically the chemo had broken up some of the cancer but there's still some left in the portal vein of her liver which cannot be removed,” Emily explained. “Basically, they can't just surgically remove it and it goes down a little bit past her liver, so they can't just do a liver transplant because there'll be some remaining outside the liver.”

Currently, Emily and Chris are searching for hospitals out-of-state that can perform small bowel and liver transplants. Unfortunately, most hospitals across the country would require Emily and Gabriellah to be treated out-of-state for at least six months — and even longer for other hospitals.

"Right now, it's been a little bit of a process with the cancer, so it set us back a little bit,” Emily said. “But she's done about eight rounds of chemotherapies, different ones, and we're hoping this will be close to the last ones; it's brought her cancer down quite a bit.”

Although Gabriellah is not out of the woods yet, both Chris and Emily believe wholeheartedly that she will pull through stronger than ever before.

“I think our whole story of Gabriellah is sharing a story of hope,” Chris said. “It's her story. You know, it's this little girl who was born premature, who really shouldn't have lived.”

“She's a fighter. I mean, she's overcome so much, and at this point, I mean, after everything she's overcome, I think she'll get through this,” Emily said. “It's been a process. We're almost three years in, and I think we're ready for her to be well, at this point. I think that's just the biggest thing is for her to get to that point where she can be a little girl, where she can go to daycare, she can make friends, and you know, just be a kid.”

The extra “H” on the end of Gabriellah’s name, Emily said, also serves as a symbol of hope and the “breath of God.”

“She wants to live, and we're trying to help her have that life,” Emily said. “I think we're almost there. I think if we can push through this year, and she gets through the transplant process — she'll still have to have two more chemos — but if she does well after that, she can go back to being a kid.”

The biggest help for the Willis family throughout Gabriellah’s fight has been the constant and unwavering love and support from the local community.

“The Bridge was a huge support for our family in the beginning and so was Granbury ISD, along with Kudo Homes and MK Homes,” Chris said.

“I don't really like asking people for funds,” Emily said. "So, we've had people that have just decided on their own that they want to (help) and we're really appreciative of that. The whole community has come together for us, and it means a lot.”

Last year, Chris said they also had T-shirts made with the phrase “Ellah’s Fight,” along with several fundraisers to help raise money for Gabriellah’s medical expenses.

"We're trying to get some fundraisers going now for this next step of (Gabriellah and Emily) moving, so our family will actually separate,” Chris said. “I'll have to stay here to help run our business."

Chis and Emily are the owners of Willis & Co. RV, an RV dealership they opened in 2022 and that has since become a successful business — even against all odds.

“Our entire family said that we would shut down and that we would go bankrupt, and we would not make it,” Emily said.

“We were two 20-year-olds who didn't have a whole lot of family support, and at the exact same time as we were having this premature baby that was really sick — that probably should have passed away — we were starting our own business, too,” Chris said. “But God has blessed us.”

Chris describes Emily and himself as being “ministry-focused and ministry-minded.” He said their goal is to open a foundation to help other families who have gone through a similar situation as theirs.

"We love helping people,” he said. “Before this, I actually worked a full-time ministry and I was a youth pastor, and she was a youth pastor too, and then she worked for a nonprofit for Pecan Valley (Centers for Behavioral & Developmental Healthcare). We've always had a big emphasis on helping people, and out of this, we want to help more people that are involved with chemo, who have had a blastoma and who were born premature.”

While future fundraisers are still in the works, residents can donate to Chris and Emily’s GoFundMe at shorturl.at/xAFO9.

"We're not done,” Chris added. “This fight is not done. But we want to say thank you for how far we've come already. She still has a long journey.”

“She smiles. I mean, she's the happiest little girl, and to me, that keeps me going, that keeps me fighting,” Emily said. “I get discouraged. I have days that I'm like, ‘We're not gonna make it. I don't know what the next month's gonna look like,' but then I see her smile, and I'm like, ‘We're gonna make it. We're gonna keep fighting.’ To me, that's been the biggest thing is just seeing her smile through it all and being a happy baby."