The 17-year-old girl who won a medical malpractice case against a Florida facility that kept her from her mother — who later killed herself — said the jury’s verdict vindicated her parents’ deaths.
“No amount of money is going to replace my mom, so honestly, we’re just happy to get yes, we’re happy that our prayers were answered,” Maya Kowalski told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo after a Florida jury awarded her family a staggering $261 million in their lawsuit against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Last week, a panel ruled the hospital wrongfully separated Kowalski from her mother and awarded the family $261 million for several wrongdoings, including wrongfully placing the young girl under video surveillance for 48 straight hours and making her naked in shorts and a training bra. for pictures.
Kowalski, whose case was featured in the hit Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya,” told Cuomo the jury’s verdict meant “everything” to her mother.
“My mother was the type of person when she was right, she would prove it,” he said. “Unfortunately, he is not here to implement that. But we’re here and we’re doing it. And we proved him right.”
Kowalski was hospitalized in October 2016 by his mother, for treatment of a painful nerve condition known as Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome.
Maya Kowalski says a jury’s decision to award her $261 million in her medical malpractice suit against a Florida hospital vindicates her late mother. Law&Crime Network
Her mother, Beata Kowalski, demanded that her daughter receive aggressive ketamine treatment, an approach she said had previously relieved her symptoms.
Doctors, however, believe the older Kowalski is faking symptoms and suffering from Munchausen by proxy syndrome, in which parents fabricate a child’s symptoms to gain sympathy and attention.
Hospital staff contacted Florida child welfare authorities, and soon the girl was removed from her parents’ custody and made a voluntary ward of the state.
The jury found Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg wrongly separated Kowalski from his mother. Google Maps
A distraught Beata Kowalski hanged herself in her garage three months later.
Kowalski’s attorney, Nick Whitney, said while Maya was in hospital custody, the facility did not protect her from “internal abusers” and social workers who “took advantage of her vulnerability.”
On Friday, Kowalski filed a criminal complaint with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department involving the hospital, alleging she was sexually abused there.
Beata Kowalski demanded her daughter receive aggressive ketamine treatment for her rare neurological condition. Courtesy of Netflix
Howard Hunter, a lawyer for Johns Hopkins, said that the hospital will appeal the jury’s decision.
“The evidence clearly shows that Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital followed Florida’s mandatory reporting law in reporting suspected child abuse and, when the suspicion was confirmed by the district court, fully complied with Department of Children and Families (DCF) directives. and the courts,” Hunter. said.
In response to the criminal complaint, Johns Hopkins attorney Ethen Shapiro said the allegations occurred during the trial.
“Once the hospital became aware of the allegations, and in accordance with their policy, they immediately began an internal investigation and contacted law enforcement last month,” Shapiro said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
