On the Monday, June 16, 2014 episode, General Hospital's denizens gathered for the funeral of baby Gabriel Drake Santiago. The prematurely born boy passed away in the arms of his mother.
Gabe was born way too soon as his mother went into labor after a car crash. Sabrina (Teresa Castillo) was still in her second trimester, and Gabe was delivered on the side of the road. His father Patrick (Jason Thompson) and older half-sister Emma (Brooklyn Rae Slizer) were also in the vehicle. Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) saw the car and went to help. She had no idea that her former rival was injured, but did everything she could for Sabrina and the child. His dire situation was even mentioned during the ball. Things looked to be going well for baby Gabe, he was getting stronger and moving around in his incubator. Unfortunately, his health deteriorated and an infection ended his short life. Before he died, Sabrina wanted the boy baptized, so a priest came to do the honors. Felix (Marc Anthony Samuel) and Epiphany (Sonya Eddy) were a great support to the couple throughout the ordeal though both had moments where they broke down in tears over Gabe's passing. Felix also interacted with Lucas over what happened and he mentioned the death of his 6 year-old sister. While the audience who has watched long enough knows, that BJ died and Maxie got her heart, Felix may not be privy to that information. I wish that had been mentioned how in a roundabout way, Lucas is family to those involved as he sees Maxie as a cousin and Emma sees Maxie as an aunt. Also Lucas's mother Bobbie dated Patrick's father Noah though it happened off camera in Seattle. While Gabe was passing away, Sabrina listened to his heart with her mother's stethoscope, as Patrick sat next to them.
Nearly everyone in Port Charles was devastated over the loss of such a small child. Sabrina though had a mental breakdown thinking that it was her wedding day to Patrick and not the day before a funeral. At the service, Epiphany sang "Amazing Grace". While I'm glad they didn't go the route of having Sabrina check into a mental institution, I do hope she gets grief counseling after such a major loss. Juan (Michael Saucedo) came to town to visit his cousin and she left with him to visit family in Puerto Rico. Patrick had a lot of support especially from Liz and Sam, both of whom have lost children. I appreciated these scenes because they played on the friendship between Patrick and each of the women. That said I wish that Maxie only saw him at the service, but at least she was allowed to mourn as even if Sabrina isn't her family, Patrick and Emma are. Anna and Duke also lamented over the miscarriage she had many years ago. The one thing I do wonder is why Emma wasn't really included in the story, though I wonder if it has to do with Brooklyn's age. I liked that Patrick went back and kept the stuffed animal (a koala named Scorpio) that Emma gave her brother. If we can't see Emma with her dad during this time, I wish they had told us that Emma went off screen to visit her mother, Robin. Instead it was used as an excuse for Patrick to be upset with his estranged wife.
Hopefully, General Hospital will stay away from a dead children stories for the foreseeable future. While the deaths of baby Victor and Hope Manning can't be mentioned on the program, I haven't forgotten that they also occurred in the last two years. While I feel more sympathetic towards Sabrina now that she has lost a child, I'm still not sold on her being paired with Patrick. I hope that Sabrina finds someone new to love, where there is no baggage over baby Gabriel.
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