(LifeSiteNews) — A 12-year-old Canadian girl who survived a brutal school shooting at the hands of a suspected transgender-identifying male killer over a month ago is still fighting for her life, after a planned fourth skull surgery has been placed on hold.
In an update regarding her daughter’s progress Cia Edmonds, mother of Maya Gebala, noted the family is hoping a fourth surgery on Maya’s skull, to fix a part of it that was shattered after being hit by a bullet, would happen; however, the surgery has not yet taken place.
“She is finally getting a prosthetic piece of her skull put in place, in lieu of the one she had, that was fractured to bits from a bullet,” noted Edmonds.
Edmonds said that the past few weeks have been a “fog” and that Maya has had to deal with countless setbacks.
“Today’s surgery to have her skull full again, didn’t happen … a leaking abscess in the center of her brain took over. So far the culture is sterile,” wrote Edmonds in an update.
“I have never been so hopeful, just to watch my world and everything I am fall to pieces.”
Maya has been making steady progress despite the setback, however. Her surgery, once it happens, will allow her to move out of the ICU.
“She has come a long way since the beginning. And now she is aware of herself and surroundings,” Edmonds wrote in an earlier post.
In the latest post, Edmonds wrote her heart has been “shattered into 2 pieces.”
“One piece is broken, and one piece is alone and scared. They feel so far away from me, or what ever the ‘me’ is that is left. I am an empty vessel, the love I have to give is poisoned with despair. The goals we had feel like a lottery. Any sense of the term ‘life’ seems unimaginary, out of reach. I have nothing more to give.”
Currently, Maya, of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, is in the BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver where she has gradually improved from an initial critical condition, including breathing on her own after ventilator removal and showing deliberate responses.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, the Canadian shooter suspect, identified as 18-year-old male Jesse Van Rootselaar, went on a rampage on February 10, killing eight, mostly children, and wounding no less than 25 people. Van Rootselaar, who later killed himself, dressed as a female. It is the second-worst school shooting in Canadian history. Many of the victims are still on life support.
Edmonds has been providing regular updates on her daughter’s condition since the horrific shooting, with Maya becoming a symbol of strength and resilience for many Canadians.
A GoFundMe has been established to help with medical expenses, which has amassed over $500,000 as of Thursday.
The family is also pursuing a civil lawsuit filed on March 9 in the BC Supreme Court against OpenAI, the company behind hugely popular AI platform ChatGPT.
The claim, brought by Edmonds on behalf of Maya, her younger sister Dahlia, and herself, alleges OpenAI failed to alert authorities despite having knowledge of the shooter’s use of ChatGPT to discuss and plan violence, including a mass casualty event.