The woman at the center of a haunting medical abuse case which culminated in her mother’s suicide and was featured in a Netflix documentary tearfully took the stand in a Florida courtroom this week.
Then 10 years old and suffering from unbearable pain, Maya Kowalski was admitted to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg in 2016 for treatment.
After a week’s stay, doctors concluded her symptoms were not real — and her mother was conjuring the illness due to Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
The disorder leads caregivers to fake a child’s condition to garner concern and sympathy from others, as in the case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
Hospital staffers alerted Florida child welfare, who then barred her mother from visiting her daughter.
“She said, ‘I love you and I’ll see you tomorrow,’ and I never saw her again,” Maya, now 17, said in court this week, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Maya Kowalski is at the center of a medical abuse case featured in a Netflix documentary.Netflix
The case eventually became the subject of the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya,” released earlier this year.
Three months after being prohibited from seeing her child her mother, Beata Kowalski, hung herself in the garage of her family home in January 2017.
Kowalski and her family are now suing the hospital for $220 million, alleging its actions led to her mother’s suicide.
The suit asserts Maya was indeed suffering from a legitimate illness known as complex regional pain syndrome, a rare neurological condition.
Symptoms include sporadic episodes of severe pain in the limbs along with skin lesions.
Maya Kowalski was hospitalized for three months before her mother’s suicide.Courtesy of Netflix
The condition also triggered a neurological reaction that caused Maya’s feet to turn inwards during flareups, according to her family.
Beata Kowalski, a registered nurse, advised the hospital of her daughter’s condition and demanded she be given doses of ketamine to quell her symptoms.
A prior doctor had prescribed the controlled drug, and Maya’s mother said it had eased her symptoms.
But skeptical hospital staffers were concerned about the requests, arguing the approach was not in line with conventional medical practices.
As a result, a judge ordered Maya held in state protective custody, keeping her away from her distraught mother for nearly three months as the allegations of abuse were investigated.
Beata Kowalski committed suicide in January 2017.Courtesy of Netflix
After 87 days of separation and facing child abuse allegations, Beata Kowalski took her own life.
Unaware of the suicide, Maya testified this week that she woke up around 2 a.m. the next morning.
“I was crying ‘I miss my mom, I love my mom,’” she said. “I had the feeling. I felt it.”
Hospital attorneys have countered their child abuse concerns were legitimated in a prior court ruling.
“This Court has determined that Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital reported suspected child abuse of Maya Kowalski in good faith,” a Sept. 12 request for special jury instructions states, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“Neither Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital nor Catherine Bedy can be found legally liable for making that report.”
The Kowalski family is suing Maya’s hospital for $220 million.Courtesy of Netflix
Maya’s father, Jack Kowalski, filed the $220 million lawsuit in 2018 accusing the hospital of wrongly severing Maya from her mother.
He’s alleging false imprisonment, medical malpractice and infliction of emotional distress.
Maya Kowalski — who said she still suffers from her condition — said doctors at the St. Petersburg facility largely ignored her complaints of pain.
At one point on the stand, she said she was given $20 for her 11th birthday while still hospitalized and bought her mother a necklace.
She later learned that she was wearing the jewelry when she killed herself.
Sobbing, Kowalski revealed she was also wearing it during her testimony — drawing tears from several jurors.
The case is ongoing.
Source link: https://nypost.com/2023/10/12/maya-kowalski-takes-stand-in-take-care-of-maya-trial/