That mother was Beata.īut though Beata died in 2017, hanging herself in her home’s garage three months after she was first accused of abusing Maya and just days after a judge ruled that their separation must continue, it’s her voice we might hear the most in Take Care of Maya. In 2019, investigative journalist Daphne Chen, then a child welfare reporter at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, reported on a lawsuit filed against All Children’s Hospital by a family who said false allegations of medical child abuse prompted the child’s mother to commit suicide. Keating first heard of the Kowalski case when researching another project. Petersburg, Florida, doctors seemed alarmed by its use, even referring to Maya as “ketamine girl” in text messages revealed in the documentary. But in 2016, when Maya suffered a relapse of symptoms, including severe stomach pain, and was rushed to the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Kirkpatrick’s treatment protocol for CRPS is a regular dose of ketamine, a painkiller known in past decades as a veterinary anesthetic or as a club drug called “Special K.” In recent years, it’s also gained traction as a painkiller in hospital emergency rooms and is currently being studied for its potential mental health benefits. He diagnosed Maya with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a term used to describe a set of symptoms including spontaneous and debilitating pain, muscle wasting, and movement impairments. Eventually, they were referred to anesthesiologist and pharmacologist Anthony Kirkpatrick, a pain syndrome specialist.
The pair documented Maya’s symptoms and aggressively sought care for their daughter, with doctor after doctor admitting that they were stumped. Her dad, Jack, was a retired firefighter. Her parents were familiar with medical matters: Maya’s mom, Beata, was a Polish immigrant who worked her way through nursing school and still worked in the field. By the summer of 2015, her mobility was so limited that she could no longer walk. When she was nine years old, Maya Kowalski started suffering from asthma and complaining of a burning sensation in her legs, arms, and feet. But in the Netflix documentary Take Care of Maya, it’s that final diagnosis that’s the false one, a medical misfire that destroys a Florida family. They’re the victim of medical child abuse-Munchausen’s by proxy, as it’s popularly known-and must be separated from their family to save their life. But after some mistaken diagnoses, it’s revealed that the sick kid isn’t sick at all. It’s a familiar plot, something straight out of a network procedural: A sweet and engaging child is rushed to the hospital with a debilitating and painful ailment.
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