Maya Gebala's mom hopes 5th surgery on Tumbler Ridge, B.C., victim could be her last

Maya Gebala is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout GoFundMe, Krysta Hunt for Cia Edmonds

VANCOUVER — The mother of Maya Gebala, the girl badly hurt in a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., says her daughter may be having her last surgery.

Cia Edmonds says in a social media post that the surgery is to install a prosthetic skull piece.

The 12-year-old was shot three times, including in the head, during the Feb. 10 attack in which eight victims were killed.

Edmonds says this is Maya’s fifth surgery, and “if all goes well,” it will be her last.

She says her daughter’s brain has swollen in the area where her skull is missing, but the hope is that the prosthetic barrier will increase pressure to minimize cerebral fluid flow.

Edmonds says the highest hope is that it will regulate itself in time and release pressure from Maya’s left eye and the rest of her face, with the possibility that the eye will open and that she might smile again.

Police have said 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother at their home before going to the school where she shot dead five pupils and an educational assistant before killing herself.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2026.