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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTeen Accuses Hospital of 'Medical Kidnapping' After Her Mom Died By Suicide
Last year, the story of Maya Kowalskia young girl whose suffering from a series of strange symptoms including severe pain that spanned her body culminated in a hospital falsely accusing her mother of Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP)shocked the internet. Kowalskis mother, accused of attention-seeking and child abuse because medical personnel at Johns Hopkins Childrens Hospital speculated whether her daughters symptoms were real or had occurred naturally, died by suicide. Now, the 17-year-old is speaking out, as her familys gut-wrenching struggles will be aired in a new Netflix documentary, Take Care of Maya, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 19.
In a People cover story, Kowalski and her father, Jack, start from the beginning, detailing how, at just 9 years old, the girl was struck by innumerable ailmentsfrom asthma attacks to headaches to lesions on her extremitiesthat left doctors with more questions than answers. One physician went so far as to suggest she was imagining them. But Maya would be crying 24/7, Jack told the magazine. We knew she wasnt faking.
Eventually, Kowalskis mother, Beata, learned of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a rare neurological condition that inflicts constant or intermittent pain in its hosts arms and legs. Severe sensitivity to touch is also a symptom of the condition, meaning those inflicted are prone to routine, excruciating discomfort. Dr. Anthony Kirkpatrick, a Tampa-based anesthesiologist and pharmacologist in Tampa who specializes in CRPS, officially diagnosed Maya with the condition in 2015.
For a while, the family found relief in Kirkpatrick, who treated the condition with infusions of ketamine, including five-day ketamine comas in which the nervous system is administered with a high dose of the drug to reset itself.
I felt amazing, Kowalski recalled of the treatments to People. The respite, however, was short-lived. The following year, Kowalski was hospitalized at Johns Hopkins for debilitating stomach pain. Beataa registered nursereportedly begged nurses to administer a dose of ketamine to alleviate her daughters pain. The request concerned hospital staff enough to contact Floridas version of Child Protective Services. The agency then launched an investigation of Beata and accused her of the mental disorder, in which a caretaker of a child either fabricates false symptoms or causes real symptoms in an effort to prove the child is ill. Kowalski was then separated from her parents and remained hospitalized in state custody for three months.
https://jezebel.com/teen-accuses-hospital-of-medical-kidnapping-after-her-m-1850514270
I had a friend whose daughter developed CRPS after being whacked on the elbow in a school bus incident(!) It was a long and horrible journey for mom and child. Thank goodness no one was arrested or committe suicide, although the daughter nearly did.
BlueWaveNeverEnd
(7,520 posts)in2herbs
(2,942 posts)to send this DU post to her. Thanks.
AwakeAtLast
(14,112 posts)Her daughter broke her leg in an accident and CRPS was the result. She was a young adult when she succumbed to the pain, it literally made her so sick she died.