The teenager, whose childhood medical condition and subsequent hospital treatment became the basis for a lawsuit, testified in court on Monday that hospital staff lied to her mother about the young girl wanting to speak with her.
Maya Kowalski, now 17, testified that she overheard a conversation between a Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital staff member and her mother, during which the staff member said Maya had never asked to speak with her mother, Beata Kowalski.
“I remember that my mom was on this phone call and the person who she was speaking to…claimed that I never asked to speak to my mom. That I was doing fine. I was ok in my room. I hadn’t had any questions about why my parents weren’t allowed to see me,” Maya testified, according to video posted by Fox 9.
“And that infuriated me so much because all I did for days on end was demand to speak to my parents,” she continued through tears. “That’s all I wanted to do, and I most certainly wasn’t just sitting in my room. I was crying.”
Maya was just 9 years old when she started having asthma attacks and headaches. Her symptoms soon evolved to include lesions on her arms and legs, and cramping in her feet, which began to curl so she couldn’t walk without assistance. Her parents, Jack and Beata, took her to a doctor to find out what was wrong with their daughter, with at least one thinking the girl’s condition was all in her head.
“But Maya would be crying 24/7,” Jack, 61, told People Magazine in June. “We knew she wasn’t faking.”
Finally, the Kowalskis found Dr. Anthony Kirkpatrick, who evaluated Maya and diagnosed her with a rare disorder known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, an impairment of the nervous system that increases pain sensations – meaning even the slightest stimulus could cause severe pain to Maya. Kirkpatrick treated Maya and found that the only thing that worked for her condition was monthly infusions of the powerful anesthetic ketamine, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported back in 2019.
There are critics of the diagnosis and treatment since doctors don’t know what causes CRPS or exactly how to treat it, but the ketamine injections allowed Maya to return to life as an ordinary young girl.
But Maya would still have relapses, and in October 2016, her parents took her to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, when she was having a stomachache so severe she was stuck in the fetal position.
Seven months earlier, the same hospital seemingly accepted Maya’s diagnosis, implanting a port so the young girl could easily receive intravenous treatments for the condition. But in October 2016, doctors at the hospital started doubting Maya’s diagnosis and believing that her mother was suffering from Munchausen by proxy, a condition in which a parent seeks attention from doctors and medical personnel by faking a child’s illness.
The hospital filed an abuse report, but child welfare officials closed it that same day after speaking with Maya’s specialist, according to court documents reviewed by the Herald-Tribune.
But hospital staff wouldn’t let it go, and called in Dr. Sally Smith, a pediatrician and part-time medical director of the Pinellas County Child Protection Team. The hospital filed a second abuse claim with more details, alleging that Maya’s mother, Beata, wanted to put her daughter in a coma and became angry when Maya asked for food. The abuse report also stated that Maya wasn’t really in pain.
An attorney for Maya’s family, Jennifer Anderson, told the Herald-Tribune in 2019 that Beata was “an advocate for her daughter.”
“And my sense is it struck these ER doctors that we know better than this pushy mom who’s coming in here telling us how to do our job,” Anderson added.
Howard Hunter, lead counsel for the hospital, pushed back on the family’s claims in his opening statement to the jury, arguing that once the hospital filed the report, it was the Department of Children and Families who set visitation parameters, who could and couldn’t see Maya, and what she was allowed to have in her room.
“The hospital was put in the position of having to implement those Orders. We are going to ask you to avoid conflating what was ordered by the Court with what was done by the hospital. The hospital is not the Court or DCF,” Hunter said.
Last week, Maya’s father Jack testified that he and his family were told they would be arrested if they removed Maya from the hospital, Fox 13 reported.
Beata, a registered nurse who escaped communist-era Poland, eventually committed suicide, believing that doing so would lead the hospital to let Maya go home and take her condition seriously. Sadly, she was right.
Just days after Beata took her own life, the case against the Kowalskis was dropped and Maya was allowed to leave the hospital – after keeping her for three months under a court-ordered separation that only allowed Beata to speak to Maya on the phone with someone listening in. Their devastating phone calls can be heard in the Netflix documentary.
The Kowalskis sued the hospital and Dr. Smith, alleging the medical center’s negligence led to Beata’s death, NBC News reported.
“I was medically kidnapped,” Maya, now 17, told People Magazine earlier this year.
“Maya Kowalski was falsely imprisoned and battered. She was denied communication with her family,” attorney Anderson told jurors now that the trial for the lawsuit is finally underway. “She was denied communication with the outside. She was told that her mother was crazy. She was told by social workers, one in particular, that she would be her mother.”
Hunter, attorney for the hospital, argued in his opening statements that Maya was never battered, and that “whenever there was a touching of Maya, it was done for therapeutic reasons or to comfort her.”
“There was no intention to harm her and never any point at which a reasonable person could take offense on how she was touched or how her care was managed,” he added.
The hospital denies the Kowalskis allegations, telling The Daily Wire, “Our priority at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital is always the safety and privacy of our patients and their families, and we are vigorously defending against the false allegations made in the suit.”
“Our staff are required by law to notify Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) if they suspect abuse or neglect. It is DCF and a judge – not Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital – that investigates the situation and makes the ultimate decision about what course of action is in the best interest of the child,” the hospital continued. “We are determined to prevent any chilling effect on the obligation of mandatory reporters, including teachers, first responders, and healthcare workers, to report suspected child abuse in order to protect the most vulnerable among us.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.