Take Care of Maya (2023)
- Jul 11, 2023
- 6 min read
So my phone broke this week and I remembered that I had an iPad, suddenly, and decided to watch this in bed last night. And this documentary was heart-wrenching to watch, frankly. Sometimes the words "flawed system" are over-used, and the system is corrupt, rather, especially in this case.
Effectively, to summarize without the significant detail needed to capture the gravity of this story - the hospital staff was so offended that a mother was extremely concerned that her daughter was in pain, that they accused the mother of Medical Child Abuse under the pretense of Munchausen's by Proxy, and the child was placed under State Custody and lived in a Children's hospital for about 90 Days before returning into her father's custody, but not before her mother committed suicide and her family was completely destroyed because the Florida State Government is clearly obsessed with interfering in parent's plans for their children's healthcare. Parents are allowed to change doctors and hospitals and choose care for their child at will. Is it always clean or cut and dry? No. It is a grey area. But in this case, because the state custody resulted in the suicide of the child's mother, and the state was making black-and-white decisions, the state failed gravely. The child at the center of this case, Maya Kowalski, has CRPS, which is incredibly rare, and notoriously difficult to treat.
The signs and symptoms of CRPS usually manifest near the injury site. The most common symptoms are extreme pain, including burning, stabbing, grinding, and throbbing. The pain is out of proportion to the severity of the initial injury.[5] Moving or touching the limb is often intolerable.
The patient may also experience localized swelling; hypersensitivity to nonpainful stimuli such as wind, water, noise, and vibrations; sensitivity to touch (by self, others, and even light clothing or bedding/blankets); abnormally increased sweating (or absent sweating); changes in skin temperature (alternating between overly warm and cold); changes in skin coloring (from white and mottled to bright red or reddish-violet); changes in skin texture (waxy, shiny, thin, tight skin); softening and thinning of bones; arthritis; changes in nails and hair (delayed or increased growth or brittle nails/hair that easily break); muscle spasms; muscle loss (atrophy); tremors; dystonia; allodynia; hyperalgesia; and decreased/restricted ability to or painful movement of the affected body part(s).[5]Drop attacks (falls), almost fainting, fainting spells, and visual problems are infrequently reported.
The symptoms of CRPS vary in severity and duration. Since CRPS is a systemic problem, potentially any organ can be affected. Symptoms may change over time, and they can vary from person to person. The more dynamic symptoms (especially vascular aspects (edema, temperature) and the location of pain) can change numerous times each day.[7]
The prognosis in CRPS is improved with early and aggressive treatment; with the risk of chronic, debilitating pain being reduced with the early treatment.[61] If treatment is delayed, however, the disorder can quickly spread to the entire limb, and changes in bone, nerve, and muscle may become irreversible.
Not only does this sound incredibly unbearable to live with, but the treatment used on Maya is incredibly controversial and was frankly new at the time of Maya's treatment.
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. It is also used as a treatment for depression, a pain management tool, and as a recreational drug.[18] Ketamine is a novel compound that was derived from phencyclidine in 1962, in pursuit of a safer anesthetic with fewer hallucinogenic effects.[19][20]
Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, appears promising as a treatment for CRPS.[51] It may be used in low doses if other treatments have not worked.[52][53] No benefit on either function or depression, however, has been seen.[53]
The evidence of Ketamine working well for Maya is clear in this documentary. She went from having no function in her legs to diving into a pool with full physical ability, after being in an induced ketamine coma for a few days. It's clear that, to some degree, Ketamine works for some patients, and in this case, for Maya.
The night of the hurricane in 2016 was a turning point for this family. Maya was experiencing new organ pain and was brought to the ER at the hospital which would later become Maya's State Custody prison. Beata, Maya's mother, was present and provided information regarding the oral Ketamine that Maya was prescribed - and the doctors and nurses at this hospital had no knowledge of CRPS or the treatments that were common for CRPS. The Nurses and Doctors were fearful of the Ketamine harming Maya, and they became fearful that Beata had Munchausen's by Proxy - or was using her to obtain Ketamine for recreational abuse or abuse of Maya.
Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), also known as fabricated or induced illness by carers (FII), and first named as Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP), is a condition in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person, typically their child.[7][8] This may include injuring the child or altering test samples.[7] The caregiver then presents the person as being sick or injured.[5] Permanent injury or death of the victim may occur as a result of the disorder.[7] The behavior occurs without a specific benefit to the caregiver.[5]
Beata was later found to not have MSbP through a psychological evaluation. Because the doctors were convinced that Beata was harming her daughter by administering oral Ketamine - they reported the family to CPS and had Dr. Sally Smith (with a CPS company, because in FL CPS is privatized) come and interview the child. According to the family, this interview was not in-depth at all, and Dr. Smith didn't present herself as who she actually was. She did not identify herself. Then she went ahead and recommended that Maya go into State Custody and she was no longer permitted to see her parents until the case was resolved. Just like that.
Thus begins the hell that this family is still experiencing. But the problem isn't so much that Maya's medication was Ketamine, or even that Beata was a pushy, concerned mother. The problem is that families in the State of FL, and other states, can be accused of Medical Child Abuse for Doctor and Hospital Shopping. The thing is - Doctor Shopping and Hospital shopping is entirely legal in the United States, and for individuals with complex illnesses that may need specialists or caretakers of those individuals, including ones as impactful as CRPS, this is necessary. Everyone knows that you can choose whichever doctor or hospital you want, especially because healthcare in the United States is also privatized. Any Doctor can begin their own practice and profit from the medical care they administer to the patients who choose to be with them. And that's the key - choice.
The Kowalski's choice was taken away from them by Sally Smith with CPS, and because Beata believed that her daughter was suffering so extremely, she ended up killing herself after being devastated by the separation and depression she was experiencing.
The surviving members of the Kowalski family are now suing All Children’s and Smith, a pediatrician and part-time medical director of the Pinellas County Child Protection Team.
The lawsuit also accuses Smith, the hospital, and others of a host of wrongdoings, including medical malpractice, holding Maya against her will, dismissing the advice of her pediatricians, ignoring signs that her mother was on the verge of a breakdown, and forbidding Maya access to her rosary and prayer documents.
The family is also suing the Department of Children and Families for records related to the case.
And it turns out - it's not just the Kowalski's.
Several families came forward in reporter Daphne Chen's investigation into the CPS Industry in FL, and it turns out that Dr. Sally Smith has been quite busy. In this particular documentary, four families are interviewed about their experience with Dr. Smith, and each and every one of them had their lives destroyed by unfounded medical abuse allegations by Dr. Smith and the resulting cases opened with CPS. Parents jailed, reputations destroyed, children torn from their mothers and fathers, and ignoring doctors' recommendations and children's or parents' knowledge and claims of pain and suffering.
But the Kowalski's found a loophole in the system.
Some families settle and follow the case plan so that they can get their child back quickly - doing what the state tells you - and they accomplish this by signing some legal documents, including a release of the hospital from liability. The Kowalski's did not sign that piece of paper. This means the hospital can be sued for their liability of Maya's and Beata's and the rest of the family's suffering by the Kowalski family. Several families were the victims of power-driven nurses, doctors, and CPS workers that believed they could do no wrong. Maya herself recalled that nurses and doctors spoke openly about her and her mother, claiming that her CRPS Disorder was fictitious and made up by Beata in order to obtain Ketamine and abuse Maya with it.
But because Beata documented everything, the Kowalski's can sue the hospital and other parties involved in Maya's abuse by the system and Beata's suicide and resulting emotional damages. They have a chance at justice here, and they're going for it. Their next court date, at this time, is scheduled for September 2023.
“We already lost Beata,” he said. “We gotta do this for everybody else.”
-B
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