Maya Kowalski testifies in alleged medical abuse case at center of 'Take Care of Maya' documentary
Maya Kowalski, the young woman at the center of an alleged child medical abuse case in Florida that drove her mother to suicide and inspired the Netflix documentary ‘Take Care of Maya,’ testified about her experience.
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A Florida jury on Tuesday heard closing arguments in a trial originating from a $220 million civil lawsuit alleging actions of staff at a children's hospital drove the mother of a sick child to suicide in 2017.
Maya Kowalski, the woman at the center of an explosive documentary, "Take Care of Maya," and her family allege that while Maya was being treated for severe pain at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital (JHAC) when she was 10 years old in 2016, hospital staff falsely accused her mother, Beata Kowalski, of medical child abuse and failed to take Maya's illness seriously.
A court order removed Maya from the custody of her parents in 2016 after staff accused Beata of "medical abuse," and Beata took her own life in January 2017.
Maya Kowalski's mother, Beata Kowalski, was accused of Munchausen by proxy after explaining her daughter's CRPS and treatment to hospital staff. (Netflix/'Take Care of Maya')
"One of the most unfortunate parts of this case is the caption: Kowalskis v. All Children's. We were never against the Kowalski family," attorney Ethen Shapiro said in his closing statements Tuesday. "The reason why All Children's did what it did, the reason why All Children's tried to comfort Maya, the reason why All Children's tried to get her on a safe medical path is because the loving and caring providers at my clients' hospital believed in a better future for her if they could get her off the unnecessary drugs given at dangerous levels."
Attorney Greg Anderson, who is representing the Kowalskis, said in closing arguments that the Kowalski family was treated unfairly during its time at JHAC.
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"We're talking about a child who's trying to survive in a very bad place," Anderson said. "Think about how life really works. Think about what it took for [the Kowalskis] to get here. Think about how important these ideas that they're fighting for are."
Staff at JHAC suspected that Beata Kowalski was suffering with Munchausen syndrome by proxy after she pushed for unapproved ketamine treatment for her daughter's condition. (WTVT)
Maya has a rare, chronic neurological illness called complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).
CPRS is poorly understood condition that causes severe pain throughout a person's body due to nervous system dysfunction, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Anthony Kirkpatrick of Tampa, who specializes in pain relief, initially diagnosed Maya with CRPS when she was 9 years old and helped her get treatment for the illness, which included doses of ketamine to help dull her pain.
However, multiple witnesses, including health care professionals at JHAC, maintained during the trial that Beata was exhibiting signs of Munchausen by proxy and that Maya's perceived CRPS symptoms were being driven by her mother. Munchausen by proxy is a psychological disorder in which an abusive parent or caretaker makes up or causes an illness for a person under her car — often the parent's own child — who is not actually ill.
Maya Kowalski testified Monday in a Florida courtroom about her experience battling CRPS at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. (Thomas Bender/Sarasota Herald-Tribune Pool Photo/USA Today Network)
The defense has also accused Beata of giving her daughter unsafe doses of ketamine and shared emails that Beata wrote to herself from Maya's perspective in 2015 in an effort to prove their argument that Beata was mentally unfit at the time of her daughter's hospitalization.
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"I have a very high tolerance for drugs; if I was a horse I would be comatosed or dead already," Beata wrote in one email from Maya's perspective. "But things are totally different when it comes to a girl with RSD, my metabolism is super fast. My mommy says I am not a cheep date and my daddy's response was that he feels deeply sorry for the ‘lucky man’ that will marry me one day :)"
Beata crafted the emails in November 2015, when she and her husband, Jack Kowalski, traveled to Mexico with Maya to treat her pain with a ketamine-induced coma. The Kowalskis said the treatment worked until Maya experienced a flare-up in 2016, at which point they admitted her to JHAC.
In another email detailing Maya's painful experience waking up from the ketamine coma, Beata wrote, "I literarily wanted to die again, I felt awful. I really didn't think I was going to make it through this day." Beata documented Maya's many adverse reactions to the ketamine coma treatment in her emails, the defense argued, which it said discredits the plaintiffs' arguments that Maya's ketamine treatments were safe and effective.
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Maya's father, Jack Kowalski, addressed Beata's emails in court last week, saying he believes they were an attempt by Beata to journal Maya's experience during her coma for the future.
Netflix's "Take Care of Maya" follows the story of Maya Kowalski and her mother, Beata Kowalski, a registered nurse, as they navigate Maya's rare, chronic neurological condition called complex regional pain syndrome. (Netflix/'Take Care of Maya')
"After seeing … the emails, I realized this is probably why she was doing it. I'm from a family of eight children. My mom made a baby book for all of us, and in the baby books, it starts out, ‘I got ny first haircut’ … or, ‘I crawled on such-and-such date.' When Beata and I got married, she had seen my baby book, and she thought that was an awesome idea," he said.
He further testified that Beata created baby books with first-person narratives for Maya and their son, Kyle, after they were born. He believes the emails were a similar attempt at documenting memories in the first person for Maya.
"She's talking for the child, and that's how my mom did it, as well," Jack Kowalski said.
Maya's father sued JHAC and medical personnel assigned to his daughter's treatment in 2018, alleging the hospital falsely accused Beata of medically abusing Maya and failing to properly care for his daughter, causing his family emotional distress. (Thomas Bender/Sarasota Herald-Tribune Pool Photo/USA Today Network)
The hospital's defense team has argued the trial is representative of the responsibility that hospital staff have to report suspected child abuse to authorities.
The Kowalski family alleged that the power of the large hospital system combined with the power of the state made them helpless in trying to get appropriate help for their daughter. And being separated caused severe emotional distress for both Maya and her mother, who hanged herself in their garage in January 2017 after going months without seeing Maya.
The Kowalskis also say the hospital billed their insurance company thousands of dollars for CRPS treatments despite the staff's claims that Maya did not have CRPS.
Doctors taking care of Maya at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital called the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) to report their suspicions of medical abuse. (Netflix/'Take Care of Maya')
Anderson previously told Fox News Digital his belief that accusing family members of medical abuse is "a convenient way to get rid of troublesome parents, particularly parents that are complaining about a lack of care or attention on their child."
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JHAC previously told Fox News Digital in a statement that the hospital's priority is "always the safety and privacy" of its "patients and their families."
"Therefore, we follow federal privacy laws that limit the amount of information we can release regarding any particular case. Our first responsibility is always to the child brought to us for care, and we are legally obligated to notify [DCF] when we detect signs of possible abuse or neglect," the hospital said. "It is DCF that investigates the situation and makes the ultimate decision about what course of action is in the best interest of the child."
Fox News' Christina Coulter contributed to this report.
