Maya Gebala Leaves Hospital After 262 Days of Recovery
Goldlaner.com – Thirteen-year-old Maya Gebala has been discharged from hospital after spending 262 days recovering from severe injuries suffered during the February school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.
Her father, David Gebala, marked the moment with a deeply personal message celebrating his daughter’s determination and the progress she has made since the attack at a secondary school in the northern mining community.
“There was never a day I stopped believing we would get here. The road ahead is still long, but this is a milestone no one thought we would reach.”
Writing directly to Maya, he called her “the bravest person I know.” His post included video showing Maya smiling while seated in a wheelchair, a sign of the long and difficult recovery that has followed the shooting.
A Recovery That Defied Early Expectations
Maya was among more than two dozen people wounded on February 10, when a mass shooting at the school killed eight people, including six children. The attack was Canada’s deadliest school shooting in decades.
She had been in the school library when the violence began. Maya was shot three times, including once in the head, and was flown to British Columbia Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. The injuries shattered portions of her skull and caused catastrophic brain injuries.
Doctors initially warned Maya’s family that she might not survive the first night after she arrived at the hospital. Her father recalled that grim moment in his message, contrasting it with the milestone of finally taking her beyond the hospital walls.
“You refused to accept the words we heard 262 days ago when you came out of the OR. Look at you, my girl. You blew every expectation out of the water.”
Her recovery involved five surgeries, including an operation in which doctors fitted a prosthetic skull. David Gebala described that procedure as the fifth surgery and the one that ultimately held.
He also shared a timeline of moments that, for the family, carried enormous meaning. Two hundred and fifty-one days before her discharge, Maya opened an eye, moved it and shifted her leg before she was rushed into emergency surgery again that morning. One hundred and forty-five days before leaving hospital, she gave what her father described as her first intentional smile during a game of thumb war. Sixty-one days before discharge, he heard her speak again.
“Now it’s time to leave these hospital walls behind and keep moving forward, Maya Bear.”
David Gebala thanked the nurses, physicians and therapists who supported the family throughout the treatment and rehabilitation process. Hospital discharge represents a major step, though he made clear that Maya’s recovery will continue.
Family Updates Offered a Window Into the Long Recovery
Over the months since the shooting, Maya’s father has regularly shared updates about her condition and rehabilitation. Those posts have documented setbacks as well as encouraging developments, giving the community a way to follow her progress after the attack.
One recent outing took Maya to see Foo Fighters, while another milestone was her 13th birthday. These moments have highlighted the importance of everyday experiences alongside the intensive medical care that followed her injuries.
For families coping with traumatic brain injury, recovery can involve many stages, including surgery, rehabilitation, speech and mobility work, and continued support outside a hospital environment. Maya’s departure from hospital does not erase the seriousness of her injuries, but it marks a significant transition for her and her family.
Legal Action Following the Tumbler Ridge Attack
Maya’s mother, Cia Edmonds, filed a criminal complaint on her daughter’s behalf against OpenAI. The case is among dozens brought in courts in the United States and Canada by victims, survivors and witnesses connected to the Tumbler Ridge shooting.
The lawsuits accuse the technology company of negligence after it emerged that the alleged shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, used ChatGPT while planning the attack. British Columbia has also filed suit against OpenAI.
OpenAI has disputed allegations that it failed to take violence-related safety concerns seriously. In April, a company spokesperson said the business has a “zero-tolerance policy for using our tools to assist in committing violence.”
The company has said it deactivated an original account created by Van Rootselaar in June 2025 over violent activity. It said a second account was later created to continue using the chatbot.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman previously apologized to the Tumbler Ridge community for the company’s failure to alert authorities to troubling conversations involving the shooter and the AI system after staff had flagged the account internally.
Earlier this month, authorities in the United States arrested a 30-year-old Washington state resident accused of giving advice and sending money to Van Rootselaar before the shooting. In the period before the attack, Van Rootselaar had also posted online about firearms, hunting and apparent mental health struggles.
A Milestone for a Family and Community
The Tumbler Ridge shooting left lasting grief in a small community and raised urgent questions about school safety, online warning signs and the responsibilities of technology companies. For Maya’s family, however, the immediate focus remains her continuing rehabilitation and the life she can build after months of intensive treatment.
Her father’s message framed her release as neither an ending nor a simple return to normal, but as evidence of extraordinary persistence. After 262 days in hospital, Maya’s journey has moved into its next chapter.
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