A Florida jury added $50 million in damages in a high-profile medical malpractice case Thursday, bringing the facility’s total penalty to more than a quarter of a billion dollars.
The panel found Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg took responsibility for all the charges against her, ruling that the facility wrongfully separated Maya Kowalski from her mother — who later killed herself.
All told, the famed medical center now faces $261 million in damages in the case featured in the popular Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya.”
The jury awarded money to Kowalski’s family for a variety of offenses, including wrongfully placing the child under video surveillance for 48 straight hours and making her remove her shorts and training bra for photographs.
A hospital staff member, they found, also misbehaved by sometimes kissing the 10-year-old and making her sit on his lap.
Kowalski was hospitalized in October 2016 by his mother for treatment of a painful nerve condition known as Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome.
Beata Kowalski demanded that her daughter receive aggressive ketamine treatment, an approach she says has previously relieved her symptoms.
Maya Kowalski sobbed when the verdict was read.Law&Crime Network
Maya’s mother says she was put into a ketamine coma in Mexico, an unconventional treatment that has improved her condition.
But doctors became wary of the mother’s claims, eventually concluding that she suffered from Munchausen by proxy syndrome, in which parents remove or exaggerate the child’s symptoms to gain sympathy and attention.
Kowalski testified at trial that hospital staff dismissed his condition as largely delusional, and often mocked his complaints of pain.
Maya’s mother, Beata Kowalski, committed suicide after being prevented from seeing her daughter. Courtesy of Netflix
The facility contacted Florida child welfare authorities to report suspected child abuse. After an investigation, a judge made Maya a medical ward of the state, cutting her off from her family.
Frustrated by the dismissal and facing accusations of child abuse, Beata Kowalski hanged herself in the garage of her family home three months later.
Maya clutched Beata’s rosary and wept uncontrollably as the jury’s verdict was announced in court Thursday.
The sobs grew louder as the court clerk read part of the verdict that found the hospital liable for her mother’s death.
In separate deliberations, the jury added $50 million in punitive damages, which are imposed to punish wrongdoing and deter similar actions.
The Kowalski Family. Courtesy of Netflix
“It was about the answer, knowing that my mother was right,” he said after the proceedings. “For the first time, I think I got justice.”
The panel of four women and two men reached their verdict on the third day of deliberations in Sarasota County,
The hospital’s lawyers have insisted in the hearing that the staff reported Beata to the authorities out of concern for Maya’s well-being and safety.
Maya Kowalski and her attorney Nick Whitney after the verdict. POOL PHOTO/Mike Lang/Sarasota Herald-Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK
His mother, they believe, aggressively pushed for a risky treatment regimen.
The defense team produced a draft of the email she wrote in her daughter’s voice for the blog.
The post noted her previous ketamine treatment, with Beata writing that the infusion had the potential to result in “total body failure/death.”
Kowalski was featured in the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya.”THOMAS BENDER/HERALD-TRIBUNE Pool photo/Thomas Bender/Sarasota Herald-Tribune Pool Photo/Thomas Bender / USA TODAY NETWORK
The two sides presented fighting experts on the condition and treatment, with some asserting that ketamine exposure was effective, while others said the approach was not approved by the FDA for some reason.
In closing statements this week, the Kowalski family’s attorney said the hospital acted out of “arrogance” and with contempt for Beata’s differences from their own medical expertise.
The facility, they argue, thinks they can “let it go.”
Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital found liable for $261 million.ZUMAPRESS.com
A lawyer for the hospital, Howard Hunter, said they would appeal the decision, and that the trial was marred by “plain error and prejudice.”
“We are determined to uphold the important duty of journalists to report suspected child abuse and protect the smallest and most vulnerable among us,” he said in a statement.
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