Maya Gebala's fifth surgery a success, father says: 'Could be her last'
Tumbler Ridge shooting survivor Maya Gebala may have undergone her fifth and final surgery on Monday.
Her “cranioplasty was a success!,” her father, David Gebala shared in an X post on Tuesday. The family is hoping that Maya’s hydrocephalus will subside, so she can avoid another surgery for a shunt.
“Right after surgery, we were amazed to see Maya open her eye and lift her head to look around showing incredible strength so soon after such a major procedure,” he wrote. “Throughout the day, she continued to regain her pre-surgery spark moving her hand and leg, squeezing our fingers, and looking around with curiosity.”
The surgery took “a little longer” than expected, he wrote, noting that the surgical team “took their time to ensure everything was done carefully.”
He said that there were no visible signs of the infection Maya battled previously, while acknowledging “we’re not entirely out of the woods yet there are always risks with a synthetic implant.”
He explained that Maya had developed hydrocephalus again, explaining the episodes of swelling she had been experiencing before the surgery. “However, there are many documented cases where cranioplasty helps restore normal brain pressures, allowing the hydrocephalus to resolve on its own.”
To support her recovery, he writes that Maya now has an external ventricular drain to manage any pressure changes and protect the surgery site while it heals.
Maya’s cranioplasty was a success! ❤️
— David Gebala (@DavidGebala) May 5, 2026
The surgery took a little longer than expected, but the team took their time to ensure everything was done carefully, and we were completely okay with that. There were no visible signs of the infection she battled six weeks ago, though we… pic.twitter.com/YfIXtxojS5
Her mother, Cia Edmonds, posted on Facebook Monday that Maya was “in for her 5th surgery to date.” The goal of the surgery was to install a prosthetic skull piece, she noted.
“If all goes GREAT it could be her last surgery,” Edmonds added.
She described the trying week leading up to the surgery, stating the portion of Maya’s head where “the missing flap is, had swollen, deflated, and swollen again … It is very (hard) to watch, especially when we don’t really know why.”
Moreover, during the past few weeks Maya had vomited “almost everyday, for no concrete reason. No assumed cause has been consistent. There’s speculations of course, but nothing is known, the brain is a mystery.”
Edmonds said the hope is that the new prosthetic barrier “will enforce increased pressure to minimize cerebral fluid flow… It is the highest hope, that this will all regulate itself in time.. and as a result, release some pressure from her eye.”
And she hopes the prosthetic will allow Maya to open her left eye, with the relieving of pressure “around the rest of her face.” She also wonders whether “maybe she will smile.”
“Send your love. We appreciate it more (than) you know,” she concluded.
She shared a photo array of Maya’s trajectory in the previous week, showing the “changing pressures” in Maya’s head.
This development follows Maya’s family agreeing in early April to have her transferred to a hospital in Los Angeles for further treatment. As previously reported by National Post, UFC president Dana White offered to cover the medical and family costs involved and the family accepted.
However, by late April the move hadn’t been made , as Maya wasn’t medically stable enough to facilitate the move. “We haven’t left Canada. The process to transfer (Maya) hasn’t been easy to say the least,” Edmonds wrote in an April 23 post to her Facebook page.
Maya remains at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. She suffered significant brain damage after being shot by Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, during a mass shooting Feb. 10 in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., when six people were killed at a school and two others in a home.
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