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New documents released by Maya Kowalski’s mother show she has Munchausen syndrome by proxy and is putting her daughter’s life at risk, lawyers argued this week.
In a draft of a 2015 blog post written in her daughter’s voice, Beata Kowalski wrote that an induced ketamine coma can cause “systemic failure/death.”
Elsewhere, still writing from Maya’s perspective, she writes, “If I were a horse, I’d be in a coma or already dead.”
“My mother watched over me all day long and kept checking to see if I was okay even at night,” the mother wrote about herself in an email draft.
Maya Kowalski, then 10, was admitted to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg the following year for treatment of severe pain.
Beata Kowalski told doctors that her child suffered from a rare condition called complex regional pain syndrome, and that the intense ketamine treatment he received in Mexico, including an induced coma, alleviated his suffering. Ta.
Alarmed by her demands and skeptical of Maya’s condition, doctors believed Beata was suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, where caregivers fabricate a child’s illness to get attention.
They eventually contacted Florida child welfare authorities, who placed Maya as a ward of the state and barred her from seeing her mother.
Beata Kowalski hanged herself in her parents’ garage in January 2017 after three months of separation and facing child abuse charges.
Her family is currently suing the facility for $220 million, alleging that the hospital acted recklessly to isolate Maya and minimize her illness.
Her father, Jack Kowalski, claims false imprisonment, medical malpractice and infliction of emotional distress.
Maya Kowalski, who testified in the ongoing trial that she still suffers from symptoms, said doctors at the hospital ignored her complaints of pain.
The incident ultimately became the subject of a Netflix documentary, “Take Care of Maya,” released earlier this year.
In another long email Beata wrote in her daughter’s voice, she described the rarity of her symptoms and the bloated stomach, waking up every 30 minutes during the night, increased body temperature, and discomfort from the feeding tube. described the debilitating side effects of ketamine treatment.
“Thankfully my mom was there and helped me right away,” Beata wrote.
Despite the discomfort, Beata wrote that ketamine was her only path to a normal life and that Maya had the ability to tolerate the side effects.
“Ketamine gave me magical powers and I acted like Supergirl,” Beata wrote in her daughter’s voice.
Kowalski testified at trial that separation from his mother was deeply traumatic, especially when he was young.
She insisted that her symptoms were and are real, and that fighting doubts would only make them worse.
The doctor who previously prescribed ketamine treatment for Maya previously testified that the treatment was medically appropriate and relieved her pain.
But Dr. Elliott Crane, professor emeritus of anesthesiology and director of pain management at Stanford Medicine, told jurors in defense testimony this week that the therapy is dangerous and not practiced in the United States.
The trial is ongoing.
