Gabriel Santiago

**Gabriel Drake Santiago** was a fictional character on the ABC daytime soap opera *General Hospital*. He was the son of Dr. Patrick Drake and his ex-fiancée, Nurse Sabrina Santiago.

He was born onscreen on April 25, 2014.

Teresa Castillo, who portrayed Sabrina, was pregnant in real life with a little girl during this time so her pregnancy was written into the show. She went on maternity leave on June 16, 2014 and returned on August 21, 2014.

## Background

Gabriel was conceived during his parents' relationship, which ended in a broken engagement when his father's wife, Robin was revealed to be alive at his parents wedding.

On New Year's Eve, Sabrina gets nauseous to the point of throwing up and her best friend Felix DuBois asks her if she's pregnant. Sabrina denies it, at first but eventually lets Felix buy her a pregnancy test to find out. Sabrina hopes she isn't pregnant, but the test comes back positive. Felix tells her to let Patrick know, but Sabrina refuses, because she'll be acting like Britt. Though Felix argues otherwise, Sabrina is adamant that Patrick never finds out. Felix relents, saying he'll let her figure it out. When Felix is returning to work, Sabrina begs him not to tell Patrick that she's pregnant. Unfortunately, Carlos overhears and asks if it's true. Sabrina finally admits it, but says she's not going to tell Patrick. Sabrina says she's thought about both not having the baby and giving it up for adoption. Carlos Rivera offers to raise the baby with her and she hesitantly agrees

Meanwhile at the hospital, Felix was unsuccessful in trying to fend off Patrick's curiosity about how Sabrina was doing. He admits to Patrick that Sabrina is pregnant just as Robin walks up. Patrick heads over to Sabrina's apartment and asks Sabrina if she's pregnant, which she confirms. Just as Sabrina and Patrick start to talk about how to handle the situation, Carlos interrupts them and claims to Patrick that he is the father of Sabrina's child. Sabrina goes along with this, telling Patrick she slept with Carlos the night of their interrupted wedding because she was upset. Meanwhile, Patrick tells Robin that the baby is not his, while Robin is thrilled, Patrick seemed visibly upset.

When Emma finds out that Sabrina's pregnant, she lies and says that Carlos is the father and not Patrick but when Elizabeth accidentally admits the truth in front of Emma, Sabrina realizes the her lies have gotten out of hand. She finally tells Patrick that he's the father of her baby. Patrick leaves, angry and hurt, and tells Robin. Sabrina also lets Carlos know that he won't need to pretend to be the father, something that he is not happy about.

Sabrina has her first ultrasound alone, when Patrick doesn't show up. She ends up having her appointment with Britt when her doctor couldn't make it either, and Britt agrees to fill in. Sabrina is thrilled when Britt tells her the baby looks healthy. She decides not to find out the baby's gender until Patrick is with her. Soon after, Sabrina runs into Robin and Patrick, and brings up her appointment. Patrick apologizes, saying something came up. He tells Sabrina that Robin is leaving town to do volunteer work in Africa. Sabrina's surprised to hear this, and asks Patrick if Robin is leaving because of her pregnancy. Patrick assures her that it's not the reason, and promises her he wants to be a part of their baby's life. On April 16, Patrick and Sabrina find out they are having a baby boy. On April 22, Patrick and Sabrina tell his sister Emma that she is going to have a baby brother. On June 4, Baby Gabriel died of massive organ failure.

## Storylines

Gabriel was born onscreen April 25, 2014 to Dr. Patrick Drake and Nurse Sabrina Santiago with the help of Dr. Britt Westbourne and the support of Patrick. After Patrick, Sabrina and Emma were in a car accident caused by Rafe Kovich, Jr., Sabrina goes into premature labor at 25 weeks pregnant and gives birth on the side of the road with the help of Patrick and Britt. After Gabriel is born, Britt tells Sabrina that he is breathing but they need to get to the hospital. Gabriel is rushed to the NICU by his father and Epiphany while his mother is taken to the ER with Felix by her side. Britt reveals to Patrick that Gabriel is 13 inches long and weighs in at one pound 12 ounces. He is on ventilator to help him breathe and has a 50/50 chance of survival. Later on, his parents come to visit him.

On May 13, he gives his parents a scare when he has trouble breathing, but the doctors get it under control. With this incident behind them, Emma comes to visit and asks about her baby brother's name. Patrick and Sabrina decide that it's time to name their son and together with Emma, they name him Gabriel Drake Santiago.

For the next few days, Patrick and Sabrina continue to sit vigil by Gabriel's bedside in the NICU. His condition seems to be improving and he gains a little weight. Sadly, just as Patrick and Sabrina begin to think their son is out of the woods, Gabriel experiences a set back. While his parents are visiting with him, the monitors in the room start to go off. Britt rushes in with other doctors to work on Gabriel. Gabriel was experiencing necrotizing enterocolitis, which was causing his organs to shut down. Britt was forced to deliver this sad news to his parents. As a result of the necrotizing enterocolitis, the infection he was fighting spread to his intestines and he was no longer absorbing nutrients. The infection was also causing massive organ failure. Sabrina tearfully tries to think of other options to save her son, but Britt tells her that antibiotics will not be enough and Gabriel is too small to survive any surgery to repair the damage.

Britt tells Patrick that Gabriel only has a few hours left and the most they can do is make him as comfortable as possible. She advises the parents to spend time with their son and say goodbye. Sabrina wants a second opinion, so they call in Dr. Porter, who after examining Gabriel, sadly has the same news to share as Britt. Patrick and Sabrina are devastated and lean on each other for strength as they prepare to say goodbye to their son.

Patrick and Sabrina stay by Gabriel's side in his last hours. Epiphany Johnson and Felix DuBois arrive and ask, Sabrina if she would like to hold her son. Sabrina gets the chance to hold her son for the first time and asks to have him baptized. Gabriel is baptized in the hospital with his parents, Epiphany and Felix in attendance. After the baptism, Patrick also got the chance to hold his son and the three bonded alone as a family, reassuring each other that their mothers would be looking after their son in heaven. Felix arrived soon after with Sabrina's mother's stethoscope, so she could hear Gabriel's heartbeat. Patrick handed Gabriel back to Sabrina and helped her with the stethoscope.

She heard her son's heartbeat and sadly said to Patrick "We made that heart and I can hear it." Sabrina listened to his heartbeat until it stopped. Her last words to her son were, "Goodbye my sweet Gabriel, my heart has never known such love. You take it with you and never let it go."

It was later revealed that Victor Cassadine put Rafe Kovich, Jr. up to running Gabriel's family off the road to keep his stepmother, Robin Scorpio-Drake, who Victor was holding hostage, in line.

## Health and Vitals

* Born at 25 weeks (15 weeks early) on the side of the road because of a serious car accident caused by Rafe Kovich, Jr., who was put up to by Victor Cassadine [Apr 25, 2014; revealed Jul 2014; revealed Aug 7, 2014]
* Wasn't breathing when he was born (was placed on a ventilator) [Apr 25, 2014]
* Weighed 1lb 12oz and was 13ins long at birth [revealed Apr 25, 2014]
* Rushed to the NICU by his father once admitted to GH along with his mother [Apr 25, 2014]
* Had a scare with his lungs [May 13, 2014]
* Experienced necrotizing enterocolitis, which caused an infection to spread and massive organ failure [Jun 3, 2014]
* Died of massive organ failure [Jun 4, 2014]

1. ↑ Shown on police report June 25, 2014.
2. ↑ He was seen in Puerto Rico with Michael and Felix on April 22, 2016.
3. ↑ http://tvmegasite.net/transcripts/gh/older/2014/gh-trans-05-27-14.shtml
4. ↑ She was seen in Puerto Rico with Michael and Felix on April 22-25, 2016.
5. ↑ Her last name was revealed by Michael on May 19, 2016.
6. ↑ Sabrina revealed on May 20, 2016, that he is her aunt Inocencia's son and Carlos' friend