Maya and Beata Kowalski.Photo:Jack Kowalski
Jack Kowalski
In October 2016,Maya Kowalski’s mothercame to visit her in the hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., when the then-10-year-old girl was suffering from a rare neurological condition that left her in debilitating pain.
“I remember my mom had to leave at a certain point and it was the last time I talked to her,”Maya, now 17,recounted on the stand Monday in Sarasota Circuit Court in Sarasota, Fla. “She said ‘I love you and I’ll see you tomorrow.’”
Breaking down into tears, Maya said, “I never saw her again.”
Maya never saw her mother,Beata Kowalski,again after staff members at the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. notified child protective services that Beata was insisting that Maya’s chronic pain be treated with ketamine – and a judge ordered her to be held at the hospital.
As a result, a judge ordered Maya to be held in state protective custody – away from her mother for 87 days while the allegations were investigated.
Jack Kowalski/Netflix
In court, Maya testified that she woke up around2 a.m.the following morning, not yet aware of her mother’s death. “I was crying ‘I miss my mom, I love my mom,'” Maya recounted.
She was shocked when she later learned that her mom died around that time. “I had this feeling," she testified. “I felt it.’”
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Maya’s father, Jack Kowalski, filed the $220 million lawsuit in 2018 alleging that the hospital separated Beata from Maya, who was taken into state custody for three months in 2016 when she was 10.
Jack filed the lawsuit in 2018 on behalf of his children, Maya and Kyle, and the estate of his late wife, alleging medical malpractice, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Netflix
In 2016, Maya was checked into the Children’s Hospital for debilitating stomach pain. Hospital staff reported Beata, a registered nurse, to DCF after she repeatedly requested Maya be treated with ketamine, saying the drug had been effective for Maya in the past.
During her testimony, Maya told the court, “She never gave me IV ketamine at home.”
Maya also recounted how her condition worsened in the hospital, especially when she alleged staff members and medical personnel didn’t believe how much she was suffering.
“My condition went downhill (in the hospital),” she testified.
“I told them my constantly about my pain,” she testified. “They weren’t listening, so I stopped telling them. Only when they asked.”
Beata Kowalski
Maya said her pain is still so debilitating from the CRPS that “there are days I stay in bed for days on end” and that she currently has multiple lesions on her right leg.
When she left the hospital, she said she was scared to see another doctor again.
‘Medically Kidnapped’ in the Hospital
During her emotional testimony on Monday, Maya, whotold PEOPLE in an exclusive June interviewthat she was “medically kidnapped,” testified about the strict measures the staff took while she was in state custody.
They wouldn’t allow Maya to speak Polish to her mom on the phone. “I was told I had speak English so they could understand,” she testified.
Raised as Catholic, Mayasaid she wasn’t allowed to have sacraments that a priest brought her, including Holy Communion.
“They believed my mom was putting ketamine in the wafers and the holy water,” she testified.
Eventually she was given the rosary and prayer book, but didn’t let her pray with her mother on the phone, she testified.
“They thought my mom was controlling me through religion.”
She added: “They never directly told me what was going on. I was stripped from my family.”
One of the most emotional moments of the day’s testimony came when Maya recounted how she was given $20 to spend when she turned 11 in the hospital.
She bought her brother Kyle a Nerf gun, her dad his favorite mints and a necklace for her mom that said, “I love you to the moon and back.”
“I’m wearing it right now,” Maya testified, breaking down into sobs.
Many jurors were crying when Maya mentioned the necklace, and people in the gallery were visibly upset.
Why the Hospital Was Concerned
In Maya’s case, it was used to alleviate her pain.
Doctors at the hospital were hesitant to give her such a high dose of the drug – 1,500 milligrams — especially since she was on 21 other medications, Howard Hunter, the lead attorney for the hospital, said in court in September, theTampa Bay Timesreported.
“They had a child being given levels of medication they had never heard of before, that the literature did not support,” Hunter said in court, theTampa Bay Timesreported.
Hunter told the court that the hospital “acted out of reasonable caution” while figuring out how to treat Maya, theTampa Bay Timesreported.
On Wednesday, Ethen Shapiro, another attorneys for the hospital, pointed out that Maya had undergone a ketamine coma treatment in Mexico that carried a 50 percent risk of death,Fox 13 Newsreports.
Shapiro replied, “I understand that, Mr. Kowalski, but respectfully there’s a risk and then there’s a risk that’s a coin flip in which your daughter could pass. Did you know it was 50%?”
Jack Kowalski responded, “They stated it was 50%, but they stated no one every died from that procedure,” Fox 13 reports.
source: people.com
