Actress Emily Willis, 27, sent her brother a message saying she would be offline for about a week while “detoxing” at a luxury clinic in California.
More than two and a half years later, he still has not heard another word from her.
Nine days after entering Summit Malibu rehab to address a worsening addiction to ketamine and alcohol, Willis suffered a massive heart attack that left her close to death.
She remained in a coma for nearly three weeks. When she finally emerged, doctors said the damage to her brain was irreversible. Willis is now fully paralyzed and requires round-the-clock care, with feeding and breathing tubes inserted into her neck keeping her alive.
Although she can open her eyes, she is unable to communicate beyond pained grunts and moans. Her family does not know how much she understands about her condition, though they have observed occasional restless spasms that may suggest a heartbreaking awareness.
“Hey Bubs, I am about to check in. I might not have my phone. So, if you don’t hear from me in the next seven days, that’s why!! Then I get my phone back after detox,” Willis wrote to her brother, Michael Cooper, in January 2024.
Emily Willis is the adult-film star who reached the Hollywood mainstream with a role in the 2023 science-fiction movie Divinity alongside actress Bella Thorne
Her eyes remain open, but it is unclear what she can understand after the catastrophic heart attack caused severe brain damage and left her unable to communicate beyond grunts and moans. She is pictured with her stepfather and brother
“Thank you for letting me know, Litz,” he replied, using the shortened form of Willis’s real name, Litzy Lara Bañuelos.
“I love you. You got this. Make sure you come out of this with a plan forward. Miss you tons. Proud you’re taking care of yourself. Call me when you can,” Michael wrote.
Michael, 24, who lives in Utah, becomes emotional as he reads the messages to Our News Outlet. They are the last reminder he has of the sister he once knew as irrepressible.
Willis gained wider recognition through her role in the 2023 science-fiction film Divinity, appearing alongside Bella Thorne.
She received recognition from gentleman’s magazine Penthouse and earned several million dollars during her career in the adult-film industry.
By early 2024, however, her ketamine use had reportedly spiraled. Legal records say Willis was taking five to six grams of the drug each day in the months before entering rehab. One gram is enough to tranquilize a horse.
The 21-day treatment program at Summit Malibu cost $45,500.
Willis had been ‘excited’ to get better, her brother told Our News Outlet.
‘She said it had a lot of amenities, and a lot of celebrities went there and they make sure you come out well. She was strong going in and had a path forward,’ Michael said. ‘I had zero reason to think anything would go wrong.’
He is now haunted by what he imagines she endured at Summit Malibu, unable to contact loved ones while suffering from what a civil complaint alleges were night terrors, a severe urinary tract infection, and dehydration so severe that a nurse was unable to read her blood pressure.
All the while, staff at Summit Malibu allegedly assured Willis’s family that she was well, according to the complaint filed by her mother Yesenia Cooper.
Michael says his 5’6′ sister weighed 111 pounds before checking into the clinic. By the time of her cardiac arrest, she was down to 83 pounds, yet the complaint alleges she was not seen by a nutritionist or dietitian during her stay.
In early 2024, a worsening ketamine and alcohol addiction saw Willis (real name Litzy Lara Banuelos) check into Summit Malibu, a luxury rehab clinic in California
On day one, she had refused medications and was showing multiple withdrawal symptoms, according to notes from her medical chart as described in the complaint.
Three days in, she was described in those medical notes as ‘disheveled, frail, disoriented’, suffering ‘difficulty walking’ but refusing hospitalization.
After five days, another note allegedly described her as ‘anxious, distressed, barely eating, not showering or getting dressed and was experiencing aches, tremors, spasms and weakness.’
On the ninth day, the complaint says a nurse found her unresponsive and not breathing. Paramedics allegedly had to revive her for nearly an hour before detecting a pulse.
The ensuing weeks-long coma and brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen was irreversible, doctors say.
Summit Malibu stands accused in the complaint of admitting Willis ‘merely for profits’. The rehab denies all allegations.
She previously swept the AVN Awards, which is the adult industry’s answer to the Oscars
A $3 million settlement was reached this July this year, which after legal fees and other obligations has left a trust of around $1.25 million for Willis’s ongoing care. Over $120,000 has also been raised on a GoFundMe.
Summit’s parent company Malibu Lighthouse Treatment Centers does not admit to any liability or wrongdoing in the settlement.
Willis’s own lawyer acknowledged in court filings that the case ‘was no slam dunk’ and that no one knows exactly what happened before his client stopped breathing.
Her mother Yesenia Cooper – who has since moved her daughter to Mexico, where she receives 24/7 care from family at the home of a relative – believes Willis remains aware of her condition even in semi-consciousness, sometimes screaming and kicking out of frustration.
Willis was born in Mexico, where Yesenia also grew up.
She earned accolades from gentleman’s magazine Penthouse and several million dollars from her work in the adult film industry (pictured, right, with actress Bella Thorne)
Willis’s biological father wasn’t in the picture. And as Michael previously told Our News Outlet, Yesenia was caring for her young daughter alone when she met his father, Michael Cooper Sr, an American visiting Mexico.
Though he never adopted Willis, he raised her as his own along with Michael Jr, who was born when his half-sister was three.
The family moved in 2005 to Utah, where they were all able to secure US citizenship.
Willis left home at 17 and soon moved to Los Angeles. She entered the adult film industry and by 2022, she had accrued some 450,000 likes on OnlyFans.
Michael and his sister remained close, and had discussed plans for Willis to quit the adult film industry, go to college and study psychology.
‘We’d talk to her, try to help her, urging her to move out of Hollywood and those influences and come closer to us,’ he said.
But Willis stayed in LA – and catastrophe soon followed.
