A BRAVE way to heal

When Jeanaya’s life was unexpectedly marked by gun violence, Sunnybrook helped this young woman start to heal through the pain, radiating inspiration on a journey to find herself again.

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Meet Jeanaya

Twenty-six-year-old Jeanaya is going places. A young woman who effortlessly shines, she is energized by the joy of children – the oldest of five, she takes her big sister role to heart – and has an unparalleled love for animals of all kinds, even the scaly and slimy ones. Her heart is bigger than most.

So when a sudden act of unimaginable gun violence threatened to destroy the building blocks of her future, it would take determination, strength, bravery and a very special Sunnybrook team to start the journey of healing and learning to trust again.

Life for Jeanaya in March 2024 was filled with a familiar routine of school, friends, family and work.

Dedicated and diligent, she buzzed through her busy days as she worked towards graduating from her early childhood education program and her dream of working with children living with special needs.

Everything was on track, and then one night, everything changed.

An Unprovoked Attack

Making her way home after spending time with friends, Jeanaya had a clear vision of the next few hours. Hot food, a warm bed and good laughs with a girlfriend would be the perfect end to the night.

But as they drove along the highway, spirits lifted and lively, they couldn’t know that danger was just around the corner. Suddenly, an alarming sound began to ring out in the cold winter air.

Gunshots.

Followed immediately by a violent shower of glass that filled the car with fear and panic as the young women made a desperate attempt to escape, frantically driving down Highway 6 just outside of Hamilton.

Critical Moments

In the moments after the unprovoked attack, Jeanaya struggled to process the situation. “I wasn’t sure if I was alive or dead,” she remembers vividly. While both women waited for emergency services, thoughts of her family pushed Jeanaya to stay present and fight for survival.

As first responders rushed a critically injured Jeanaya to the nearest hospital, back at home over an hour away, mom Heather was living a parent’s worst nightmare.

“I’ve never driven so fast in my life,” Heather painfully recalls, “I was so scared.”

Heather, Jeanaya's mother

The start of a life-changing journey

Jeanaya’s traumatic injuries required critical emergency intervention by the orthopedic surgical team.

After successful emergency surgery, Jeanaya’s family breathed a collective sigh of relief. She was alive. Now the focus was helping Jeanaya through the next steps of healing. After starting to understand the complexities of her recovery, Jeanaya and her family advocated for her to be transferred to a hospital that offered the comprehensive, expert care that she needed.

Enter Sunnybrook.

Jeanaya was admitted to Sunnybrook’s Tory Trauma Program, Canada’s largest and busiest trauma centre serving the most critically ill and injured patients in our province. Once at Sunnybrook Jeanaya’s acute traumatic injuries were treated by an expert team of doctors, nurses, surgeons, physiotherapists and other care providers.

Jeanaya moving through the challenging journey of rehabilitation with determination

Wrapped in encouragement, Jeanaya continued to approach her physical recovery with bravery and strength. Glimpses of Jeanaya before that life-changing day began to peek through, but Heather could still sense the pain lingering in her daughter’s heart.

There was distrust and fear in the world as a whole. Jeanaya was terrified, understandably so.

Healing through Bravery

At Sunnybrook, care teams understand that healing doesn’t stop when trauma patients are discharged. Vital programs like Breaking the Cycle of Violence with Empathy, also known as BRAVE, exist to acknowledge the mental, emotional and social impacts of traumatic injury.

Based within the Centre for Injury Prevention at Sunnybrook’s Tory Trauma Program, this unique initiative uses a trauma-informed approach to education and access to care for youth in treatment for a violent injury.

Two dedicated BRAVE case managers, Elena Gordon and Michael Lewis, provide youth aged 16 to 29 with coordinated services and continuing care to address their specific needs and connect them with personal support networks. Last year, in partnership with Scarborough Health Network and Humber River Hospital, BRAVE supported 70 Greater Toronto Area youth living through recovery from a traumatic injury, and demand for the program continues to grow.

Jeanaya and her trusted BRAVE case manager Elena Gordon.

Through BRAVE, Jeanaya met Elena, whom she credits with helping her get her spark back. While apprehension dotted their first weekly sessions together, Elena’s consistency and routine meetings soon became a safe space for Jeanaya to confront her fears, voice her frustrations and express her emotional pain without judgment.

Over the next few months, Jeanaya began to open up through the ebbs and flows of her rehabilitation journey.

A lifeline for Jeanaya and her family, BRAVE provided a wide range of support from everyday needs like transportation and food to critical intervention during moments of crisis.

“I don’t know where we’d be without BRAVE,” Heather insists. “They’ve come through for us so many times in this past year – if I could fund the entire program myself I would.”

Ask Jeanaya about her trusted counsellor and their bond is crystal clear: “That’s my girl!” she proudly claims.

A future of possibilities

Jeanaya standing with her beautiful family – her loving circle includes 5 brothers and sisters.

Through months of difficult recovery, both physical and emotional, Jeanaya has worked relentlessly to reclaim her sense of self and vision for her future.

The support from Sunnybrook’s BRAVE program and the generous donors who power BRAVE’s Life Stabilization Fund have inspired Jeanaya to become a counsellor herself and pay it forward, offering hope and healing to those who feel lost.