The woman at the center of a disturbing medical abuse case that culminated in her mother’s suicide and was featured in a Netflix documentary took the stand in tears in a Florida courtroom this week.
Maya Kowalski, then 10 years old and in excruciating pain, was admitted to Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg in 2016 for treatment.
After a week of stay, doctors concluded that her symptoms were not real and that her mother was conjuring the illness due to Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
The disorder leads caregivers to fake the child’s condition to generate concern and sympathy from others, as in the case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
Hospital staff alerted Florida child welfare, who then prohibited 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 banned from seeing her son, his mother, Beata Kowalski, hanged herself in the garage of her family home in January 2017.
Kowalski and her family are now suing the hospital for $220 million, claiming its actions led to her mother’s suicide.
The lawsuit claims that Maya did indeed suffer from a legitimate illness known as complex regional pain syndrome, a rare neurological condition.
Symptoms include sporadic episodes of severe pain in the extremities 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 inward during the attacks, according to her family.
Beata Kowalski, a registered nurse, informed the hospital about her daughter’s condition and demanded that she be administered doses of ketamine to calm her symptoms.
A previous doctor had prescribed the controlled medication and Maya’s mother said it had relieved her symptoms.
But skeptical hospital staff were concerned about the requests, arguing that 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 while the abuse allegations were investigated.
Beata Kowalski committed suicide in January 2017. Courtesy of Netflix
After 87 days of separation and facing accusations of child abuse, 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.”
Lawyers for the hospital have responded that their concerns about child abuse were legitimized in an earlier court ruling.
“This Court has determined that Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital reported in good faith suspicions of child abuse against Maya Kowalski,” 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 held legally responsible 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 wrongfully separating Maya from her mother.
He alleges wrongful imprisonment, medical negligence and infliction of emotional distress.
Maya Kowalski, who said she still suffers from her condition, said doctors at the St. Petersburg center largely ignored her complaints of pain.
At one point on the stand, she said she was given $20 for her 11th birthday while she was still hospitalized and bought her mother a necklace.
She later learned that she was wearing the jewelry when she committed suicide.
Sobbing, Kowalski revealed that she was also wearing it during her testimony, bringing tears to several jurors.
The case is ongoing.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn