Hospitalized Tumbler Ridge shooting victim opened her eye, mom says

Picture of Maya Gebala, 12, posted on social media (David Gebala/Facebook)

The family of a 12-year-old girl who was critically injured in the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge say she is showing remarkable progress as she fights for her life in BC Children’s Hospital.

Maya Gebala opened one of her eyes for the first time Saturday, her mom Cia Edmonds said in a social media video filmed in the girl’s hospital room.

“Her eye is open and she’s responding and moving around, and she is moving her hands,” Edmonds said in the update to the thousands of people who have been following her daughter’s recovery journey on Facebook.

The family said Gebala underwent emergency surgery late Saturday due to fluid build up in her brain, which was a success.

“They’ve placed a drain on her right side, and she’s holding on strong just another hurdle she’s facing with so much strength,” her dad, David Gebala, wrote on social media.

Earlier this week, Maya’s dad shared that the Grade 7 student had begun taking her own breaths.

“Every single day, you show us just how strong, determined, and incredible you truly are,” her dad wrote in an update on the GoFundMe page set up to support the victim and her family. “You continue to defy every expectation the doctors and surgeons once prepared us for. We were told we only had hours and yet here you are, still fighting, still with us.”

The fundraiser has garnered more than $450,000 in donations as of Saturday afternoon.

Gebala was shot in the head and neck and the outcome of her recovery is still unknown, according to her family.

In a GoFundMe update Saturday, relative Krysta Hunt thanked everyone for the prayers, words of support, food, donations, flowers and cards that have flooded Maya’s way since the Feb. 10 tragedy.