UFC boss Dana White offers U.S. medical care for Tumbler Ridge survivor Maya Gebala
Maya’s mom Cia Edmonds has met with staff at B.C. Children’s Hospital about leaving the ICU.

UFC president Dana White has offered to bring Tumbler Ridge shooting survivor Maya Gebala to the U.S. for medical care, according to the girl’s mother.
Cia Edmonds made the revelation Wednesday evening in a social media post updating 12-year-old Maya’s condition.
“So today I (finally) got some good news,” the mother wrote.
An abscess caused by a bacterial infection hadn’t grown in size and a sample taken from the abscess showed no cultures, Edmonds said.
“That’s a good sign (not a promise) that it’s potentially dead and just needed to be removed.”
Doctors over the weekend had to delay a planned surgery to repair the girl’s skull due to the abscess.
Maya suffered significant brain damage after being shot by Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, during a mass shooting Feb. 10 in Tumbler Ridge that killed six people in a school and two others in a home. Rootselaar then killed herself.
Edmonds said the family had a meeting with medical staff about Maya possibly leaving the intensive-care unit at B.C. Children’s Hospital.
“The first time anything has been said that isn’t emotionally debilitating,” Edmonds wrote, describing her daughter as a “fighter.”
Edmonds said in the same post that she was now able to share that about a week after Maya’s admission to hospital the family was contacted by White. He offered to pay for medical care for Maya at “one of the world’s most top-tier hospitals in L.A. California” and cover accommodations for the family.
That Los Angeles hospital has an “extensive brain trauma clinic and more resources,” she wrote. “However, Maya hadn’t been stable enough to travel. Until now.”
Edmonds said a transfer to California is still tentative.
“Providing nothing serious happens between now and Monday. We may finally start looking towards a future for my girls … Stability and recovery,” she wrote. “It feels as though the air got lighter, and Maya has some light in her eyes … hope just got a little more brighter.”
Dr. Judy Illes, a University of B.C. medical ethicist with expertise in neurosciences, said she couldn’t comment on any specific hospital in the U.S., Canada or elsewhere, but described the Canadian health-care system as “absolutely superb” and care for pediatric patients as “world-class.”
“Parents always seek the best care for their children, but the resources in our urban centres is every bit as good at every level and equivalent to facilities in the U.S. and elsewhere,” said Illes, who’s on a year’s study leave to develop a strategic plan for the next decade for Neuroethics Canada.
She said the U.S. has specialist doctors who have expertise for rare cases, but Canada’s neurosurgery and neurology care are “top-of-the-line” and equivalent to what’s available in other countries.
Illes also said there are other factors to consider when seeking care in another country, including the effect on the patient and family of leaving their communities and the support of their extended family and friends.
On Feb. 21, the UFC paid tribute to Maya at an event in Texas by having her name printed on part of the octagon, the enclosed cage used for fights.
With files from Susan Lazaruk
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