Tumbler Ridge shooting survivor Paige Hoekstra sits in a hospital bed. (Leann Fletcher)
One of the survivors of the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge is returning home.
A statement on a GoFundMe page for Paige Hoekstra Monday says doctors have run a series of post-surgery tests and say they’re confident it’s safe to bring her home to the community that’s still reeling from the violence last Tuesday.
The statement from the family says they “can’t begin to express how grateful” they are for everyone who supported them in the aftermath of the tragedy.
It says other families affected by the shooting can reach out to them for support.
Five students and an educator were killed at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School after the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed her mother and half-brother at their home.
Hoekstra was one of two victims with serious injuries who were flown out of the northeastern British Columbia community for care last week.
Twelve-year-old Maya Gebala remains in a Vancouver hospital with significant damage to her brain.
An update from her family posted online says she was moving more on her left side, and while it’s hard to say how she might recover, they are hopeful.
Tumbler Ridge survivors update: Maya Gebala making progress, Paige Hoekstra heading home
‘The progress is so uplifting, I dread the day it plateaus,’ says Maya’s mom, Cia Edmonds
Maya has been in intensive care at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver since last Tuesday, where she was flown after a mass shooting that left eight people dead, including six children and two adults. The killer, 18, took their own life when confronted by police at Tumbler Ridge Secondary.
On Monday, Maya’s mother, Cia Edmonds, provided an update through Maya’s GoFundMe page, which has so far raised $420,000.
Maya, 12, is credited with trying to lock a library door within Tumbler Ridge Secondary as the killer approached. The door lock, however, was broken. Five people died inside the library and another person in a stairwell.
There’s significant damage to the left side of her brain, “where the bullet entered and exited, it tore right through,” Edmonds wrote.
“Because of the damage and swelling surrounding it, it is hard to say how much response and deliberate function she will be able to regain. However, we are hopeful. She has been cleared for a feeding tube and is (thankfully) not considered to pass in the immediate future.
Meanwhile, on Monday the family of 19-year-old Paige Hoekstra wrote on her GoFundMe page that she has been cleared to leave hospital and return to Tumbler Ridge.
“The doctors have run a series of post-surgery tests/scans over the last couple days, and they are now confident that it is safe for us to bring Paige home,” the family wrote. “We are currently looking at the logistics of bringing Paige back to T.R. to reunite with the rest of the family and continue her recovery from home.”