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Maya Gebala's parents taking UFC president's offer to pay for rehab at L.A. hospital
Tumbler Ridge shooting survivor Maya Gebala will be heading to Los Angeles for private rehabilitation care, according to social media post made Thursday by her mother.
“After many nights of research, questioning, and fear of the unknown, we decided to say yes to an opportunity for an aggressive approach to her rehabilitation through privatized health care,” Cia Edmonds wrote on Facebook.
“We are excited. As well as nervous, away from family and resources, an opportunity we couldn’t refuse. We wait for all the moving parts to line up and create a path to pursue. until then, we live somewhere in the middle.”
The family can’t move on the opportunity until Maya is able to handle a transfer from the B.C. Children’s Hospital.
Edmonds announced the rehabilitation plan in a previous Face book post on March 25.
She said that Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White contacted the family after Maya had been in intensive care for a week. He offered fully paid medical attention for Maya “in one of the world’s most top tier hospitals in LA California,” Edmonds wrote.
He also offered to pay for the family’s accommodations in Los Angeles.
The specific hospital was not named.
“Its incredible really … For anyone who watches UFC, they put my babes name in the ring. Super cool.”
At a UFC event in Houston on Feb. 21, there was an addition to the octagon, according to Cagesidepress.com. Maya’s name was emblazoned on one of the upper supports of the cage structure.
Edmonds posted a photo of a UFC match with Maya’s name in the background.
Edmonds noted in her May 25 Facebook post that the B.C. Childrens Hospital has an extensive brain trauma clinic and more resources. “However,” she wrote, “Maya hadn’t been stable enough to travel. Until now. Still tentative!”
Her hope for the family going forward is: “Stability and recovery.”
In Thursday’s post Edmonds wrote that her “hope is when we land in LA we will be able to build routine and relationships, that will hopefully feel normal(ish)? Until then, her and I stay in airbnbs, so she can have a room, and we can have breakfast together.. right now, this feels like the best i can do for her.”
She added: “A new chapter starts soon and we welcome it.”
Maya 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.
The Vancouver Sun spoke with Dr. Judy Illes, University of B.C. medical ethicist with expertise in neurosciences, after the rehab plan announcement. While Iles said she couldn’t comment on specific hospitals in the U.S., Canada or elsewhere, she described the Canadian health-care system as “absolutely superb” and care for paediatric patients as “world-class.”
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.
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