Maya Gebala’s Mother Says Family Is Ineligible for Funding, Unable to Find Housing

The mom of school shooting survivor Maya Gebala says the family has been unable to secure housing in the Vancouver region, where the 12-year-old is still hospitalized, due to their ineligibility for victim support funding.

Cia Edmonds and her younger daughter Dahlia have been living in Vancouver since Maya was rushed to the hospital there in the aftermath of the Feb. 10 mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. 

“It has been nearly impossible to acquire housing knowing she will likely be in a wheelchair,” Cia Edmonds said in a May 29 update to a GoFundMe page for the family. 

Edmonds and her other daughter had been living in Airbnb rentals so they could be nearby while Maya continues her recovery in hospital but the family has been unable to qualify for government support and the Airbnb costs were not sustainable without that help, she said.

The family is now living “between the back of my car and a couch in the hospital,” Edmonds wrote.

“The list of potential benefits covered for traumatized families searching for a new normal in an unthinkable situation. We aren’t covered,” she said. “Turns out, legislation is written in such a way, we don’t qualify.”

Having left her town and small business behind to be with her daughter means the family has been surviving on organizations that have been collecting donations for them, Edmonds said.  The GoFundMe page set up for the family had raised more than $550,000 as of June 1.

“That has literally saved us so far,” she noted, adding that the family is still hoping to find a place to live “that fits all our requirements sometime soon.”

Edmonds announced on Facebook last month the family would be staying in Canada, despite having previously agreed to an offer from Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White to cover the costs of Maya’s treatment and the family’s lodging in Los Angeles.

Edmonds offered more details about the decision in her GoFundMe update, noting that there was “too much uncertainty” and Maya’s state “too fragile” to make the trip.

“We are now, however, researching neurospecific hospitals worldwide for advanced treatment, if we find one she may qualify for, we would rather go broke taking any potential avenues available, than walk the arduous path of ‘wait and see’,” she said.

Her comments come several weeks after White confirmed that his team had run into some difficulties while trying to arrange for Maya to receive medical care south of the border.

Maya’s Injuries

Maya is one of the victims of 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary in northeastern B.C. He killed five students and one teacher’s aide and shot his mother and 11-year-old half-brother in their home earlier the same day. 

Maya was the most severely injured of the survivors after being shot three times at close range. One bullet hit her in the head above her left eye, a second struck her in the neck, and the third grazed her cheek and earlobe.

Doctors originally told the family the injury to Maya’s brain was “too much for her to endure, and she wouldn’t make the night,” Edmonds disclosed in a social media update at that time.

She has continued to defy the odds, however, despite the severity of her injuries. Although the family has not provided extensive details about her injuries, they were outlined in lawsuits filed in California against the technology company OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. Families of the victims allege the company knew the shooter posed a serious threat months before the attack and failed to notify law enforcement.

The court documents indicate that the bullet that struck Maya’s skull “shattered bone fragments through her brain.”

She has undergone multiple surgeries including a successful cranioplasty to repair damage to her skull but cannot move or speak due to “catastrophic brain injuries and permanent disabilities.”

Edmonds, in her GoFundMe update, said the extent of her daughter’s injuries has left her with a lot of questions, like how she will be able to go back to work if Maya needs round the clock care.

“Now, I imagine she is a goldfish, floating in the small aquarium that is her own body. Observing,” Edmonds wrote. “She can’t communicate. Or articulate feelings. Her eyes tell me she is in there still.”