Talya Sallie

Family and friends of Talya Sallie are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with a catastrophic injury. Talya has chosen to fundraise with Help Hope Live in part because donations are tax deductible for contributors and will only be used to cover medical and related expenses.

On May 12th, 2026, My 18-year-old daughter, Talya Sallie, was brutally shot in her head by an ex-boyfriend while sitting in her own car. The bullet entered from the back and went through the right side of her brain and came out of the front. 

Her initial prognosis was not good and we were told to prepare for the worst outcome. We were also told that if she did somehow survive, she would either never wake up, never be the same and/or never be able to use the left side of her body—at best. She was on life support for several days and had to undergo emergency neurological surgery.  

Being a faithful family, however, we came together and we prayed and held on to our faith. A few days later, after her surgery, she actually woke up. 

Miraculously, she not only survived, she started to recover right away. However, she has to learn how to eat, drink, walk, and groom herself all over again. She is permanently blind in her left eye and deaf in her right ear. She suffers from paralysis in her left hand and arm but she is learning to move it again in her rehab facility. 

She will have to undergo more neurological surgical procedures in the near future, and possibly facial procedures as well. 

While my daughter was still unconscious, fighting for her life, a family member decided to use my daughter’s tragedy to create a GoFundMe, without my nor my daughter’s knowledge or permission and conned many people out of thousands of dollars in donated funds. 

In the GoFundMe, this family member claimed that the funds would be used for ‘medical bills piling up and missed work (wages),’ however, they kept ALL of the funds. They did not give a single penny of the donations to me and my daughter’s household for any medical bills, or any missed work wages,nor anything else at all. They also are trying to manipulate my daughter into giving her consent for them to keep the funds permanently.

We are in the process of taking this family member to court and we have also filed both local and federal criminal fraud charges against them along with coercion charges for the way they are trying to manipulate my now-disabled daughter.  GoFundMe has also been informed of the fraud and are working with us and with law enforcement regarding this matter.

A number of the donors are actually upset and some of them want their donated funds returned to them. We have recorded and written evidence from some of these donors who feel they were defrauded out of their donations. This evidence will be provided to law enforcement and will be provided in the civil suit against this family member as well. 

Sooo, we are now forced to reach out to strangers for help because that family member completely drained and ruined the support of our family’s social circles. We are only asking for a bit of financial assistance until my daughter’s disability is approved–hopefully within the next 6 months.

We have completely drained our finances travelling to and from her rehab facility 1.5 hours each way, and have not been able to work much at all between visits with her and her medical team, and caring for her younger siblings. (Credit cards maxed out, and taken out short-term high-interest loans just to survive in the meantime) 

We will also need to have our bathroom slightly remodeled to accommodate her when she comes home in a few weeks, and we will need some medical supplies and equipment that are not all covered by insurance. (Including an electric hospital bed) 

We greatly appreciate any prayers and any help that anyone feels moved to provide. Thank you all so VERY much and God Bless!