Tumbler Ridge tragedy: Maya Gebala’s latest surgery postponed, says mom

Maya’s mother says on GoFundMe an abscess forced the cancellation of weekend surgery to put a prosthetic piece of her skull in place.

Maya lies on a hospital bedMaya Gebala is scheduled to have another surgery Saturday, according to an update on social media from her mother. Photo by Cia Edmonds/Facebook

Maya Gebala, the 12-year-old victim of the Tumbler Ridge massacre who is fighting for her life in hospital, was scheduled to have another surgery Saturday, but an abscess in her brain forced a postponement, her mother said on social media.

Maya is in a medically induced coma in the intensive-care unit at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver after she was shot twice — once in the neck and once in the head — by Jesse Van Rootselaar during the 18-year-old’s Feb. 10 school shooting rampage in Tumbler Ridge.

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She was one of two students airlifted to hospital following the shooting that left nine people dead and 27 injured.

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According to an update on the family’s GoFundMe page, Maya was set to have a fourth surgery to have a prosthetic piece of her skull put in place.

“Today’s surgery to have her skull full again didn’t happen,” Maya’s mom said. She said a “leaking abscess in the centre of her brain took over,” but that so far, cultures have been sterile — indicating it might not be a serious infection. But it was yet another blow in a rocky fight to recover.

“I have never been so hopeful, just to watch my world and everything I am fall to pieces.”

The organizer of the fundraiser, Krysta Hunt, has been posting progress updates from Edmonds since the tragedy.

Edmonds wrote Friday that the past month and a half has felt like a fog as they face a roller-coaster of setbacks, such as infections and surgeries. She said despite all expectations Maya has “lived, she moved, she coughed, she saw (through one eye).”

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She said Maya still has no movement on her right side, still cannot talk and struggles to swallow. Yet her mom said she can tell that she is fighting to survive.

“Her hand movements right now are deliberately grabbing the areas that hurt, her good leg is kicking herself into position. Her neck is moving, she’s turning her head (that’s new),” Edmonds wrote, adding that her daughter grabs at her sore head while Edmonds tells her it will be OK some day.

Maya was shot as she tried to protect her classmates. The seventh grader was in the library at the time of the shooting and, based on what family was told, displayed a bravery and selflessness beyond her years.

The shooter fired one shot. It grazed Maya’s cheek and ear. The second and third bullets hit Maya in the head and neck.

In the aftermath, a classmate saw Maya’s finger move and alerted first responders to care for her first before she was airlifted to hospital, according to Hunt, who is Edmonds’ cousin.