UFC Boss Offers to Fund US Health Care for Tumbler Ridge Shooting Victim

The mother of a Grade 7 school shooting victim from Tumbler Ridge, B.C., says Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White has offered to pay for her daughter to be treated in California.

Cia Edmonds says White has offered to pay for 12-year-old Maya Gebala to receive treatment at a “top-tier” hospital in Los Angeles. And that offer may be within reach now that Maya is stable enough to travel, Edmonds said on Facebook this week.

Maya is one of the victims from the Feb. 10 Tumbler Ridge Secondary School shooting that claimed the lives of five students and one teacher’s aide and injured 27 others. She was shot three times at close range, with one bullet entering her head above her left eye, a second striking her neck, and the third grazing her cheek and earlobe. 

Maya suffered serious brain injuries as a result and has undergone multiple surgeries to repair the damage at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. She has remained in serious condition in hospital since being shot, but Edmonds said the family finally received some promising news earlier this week.

“Today, we had a meeting about finally leaving ICU,” she wrote in a March 25 post. She said Maya’s progress and potential exit from the intensive care unit meant she finally felt comfortable sharing the offer the family received from White not long after the shooting last month.

She said White offered to pay for her family’s accommodations in Los Angeles while Maya is treated at a children’s hospital with “an extensive brain trauma clinic and more resources.”

She said that now that Maya is stable enough to travel, a trip to L.A. could be a possibility “providing nothing serious happens between now and Monday.”

The trip may not yet be certain, but Edmonds said even the possibility has made a difference for Maya and the rest of the family.

“It feels as though the air got lighter, and Maya has some light in her eyes… hope just got a little more brighter,” she wrote.

Edmonds also shared a picture of Maya’s name displayed at a UFC match in Texas last month. The child’s name was emblazoned on part of the octagon, the enclosed cage used for fights.

A spokesperson for the UFC in Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment about White’s offer, or when the transfer to California could take place.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre commented on Edmonds’ news with his own post to social media. He shared the message from Maya’s mom and some pictures of the girl’s name displayed on the UFC ring.

“Wow. What beautiful generosity from Dana White,” Poilievre wrote in a March 27 X post. “Thank you for helping this wonderful little girl and her great Canadian family.”

Maya has made remarkable progress since being shot by Jesse Van Rootselaar last month. 

The 18-year-old killed his mother and 11-year-old half-brother in their home before taking a long gun and modified handgun to the school and opening fire. He was found dead at the scene, bringing the final death toll to nine.

Maya and one other student were flown out of the small northeastern B.C. town for treatment in Vancouver.

Doctors originally told the family the damage to Maya’s brain was “too much for her to endure, and she wouldn’t make the night,” but Edmonds said in a social media post at the time that her daughter is a “fighter.”

Edmonds shared a similar sentiment in her March 25 Facebook update.

“My fighter… I always said her stubborn hard head will work well for her some day,” she wrote. “Livin on a prayer.”