Jury in ‘Maya’ trial finds All Children’s Hospital liable

Update: The jury awarded the family $261 million in total, including $50 million in punitive damages.

Jurors in the so-called Take Care of Maya civil trial have decided in favor of teen Maya Kowalski and her family, ordering St. Petersburg’s Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital to pay damages for “false imprisonment” and battery when the girl was 10 years old.

The Kowalskis had asked for $220 million in compensatory damages.

As chronicled in the Netflix documentary Take Care of Maya, Jack and Beata Kowalski of Venice brought their daughter to JHACH in October 2016. At 9, she had been diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), and had been prescribed ketamine.

A flareup caused Maya’s parents to visit All Children’s, where hospital staff suspected that Beata Kowalski was giving the girl excessive does of ketamine, and that she was suffering from Munchausen-by-proxy, a mental condition in which a parent – usually a mother – exaggerates or even contributes to her child’s illness in a desperate bid for attention.

The Department of Children and Families supported hospital staff’s suspicions of medical abuse and placed Maya in custodial care.

After three months away from her daughter, Beata Kowalksi committed suicide.

After deliberating for three days, the six Bradenton jurors found the hospital liable on all counts, including false imprisonment, battery and intentionally inflicting emotional distress on both child and mother.