Take Care of Maya

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For anyone interested in the factual allegation on which the Kowalskis are relying, the COMPLAINT (most recently amended version) can be viewed here:

https://secure.sarasotaclerk.com/Search.aspx

Case No.: 2018 CA 005321 NC

Document Identification Number ("DIN"): 2816

(It doesn't look like all of the "Counts" that were recently struck / dismissed have been updated in red).

For some reason, I can't see any of the documents. Have they been removed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The doctor is the one who suggested and gave ketamine to Maya, not Beata. They saw her dramatically improve with freedom of pain. So Beata wanted to continue with the treatment that seemed to have helped her daughter. I dont see how that’s abuse from Beata.

Bc you can find a doctor anywhere to say anything. Let’s say you go to a doctor who tells you your chemo needing child can instead eat a raw food diet and get sunlight daily. Can you shrug and say it’s on the doctor bc I trusted what he said?

It's not that clear, as there aren't that many doctors who specialize in CRPS. In addition, the approach to CRPS has shifted since the events in the documentary to an approach that focuses on therapy and physical therapy and not medications. The documentary does not offer a clear timeline, but it does reflect that the family tried other things, including lower doses of ketamine, before going to Mexico for treatment.

The timeline seemed pretty clear to me?? Maya started presenting with pain in July 2015 and they flew to Mexico for the ketamine coma in November 2015. IDK, that seems like a pretty short amount of time to decide to fly your kid to Mexico for a treatment that isn't legal in the US...

Yeah. Per court docs symptoms start in July 2015, Ketamine coma 2.5 months later, ketamine protocol from then until October 16th when she was admitted, released to her father in January 2017, completed PT and was walking around and resuming all normal activities by August 2017.

There are a number of press accounts of patients of Dr. Kirkpatrick with CRPS/RSD who received or considered ketamine coma treatment in Mexico, including the one below, which has this information:

Kirkpatrick then explained that there are currently three kinds of ketamine treatments for RSD: the awake technique (continuous low dosage for 4-5 days), outpatient high-dose infusion (4 hours a day for 3 days), and the coma technique (continuous high dosage for 5 days).

Upon his testing and because Jessica's RSD is full body and so severe, Kirkpatrick is recommending the only treatment available that can possibly put her in remission and afford her some semblance of a "normal" life the Ketamine Coma Procedure ? a clinical trial that is being conducted in Monterrey, Mexico. During this procedure Jessica will be put into a coma for five days, with the hope that her brain will "reset" itself so that her nervous system sends the correct signals to her brain.

https://archive.naplesnews.com/community/jessicas-journey-young-naples-woman-heads-to-mexico-in-quest-to-get-her-life-back-ep-396917211-331303671.html/

Here is another article discussing the use of a ketamine coma for the "worst" CRPS patients:
http://www.nopainhanna.com/2015/07/17/relief-for-worst-rsd-may-lie-with-ketamine-coma/

It notes that Dr. Kirkpatrick was conducting a study of ketamine comas to treat CRPS, an option he said he recommended for fewer than 5% of his patients.

South of the Border

Dr. Kirkpatrick has embarked on a study in Mexico with a protocol similar to that used in the German study; he sends his patients to the San José Technological Hospital, affiliated with the Tec de Monterrey School of Medicine in Monterrey, Mexico, a few hours’ drive from the Texas border. Patients pay about $20,000 for the treatment, which is not covered by insurance.

Leading the Mexican medical team is Fernando Cantœ Flores, MD, an anesthesiologist and specialist in pain management who was trained at the University of Texas.

The study was originally approved in the United States by the institutional review boards of the University of South Florida and Tampa General Hospital, but the FDA refused to grant an exemption to its international new drug application. Rather than embark on a process that would likely cost $3 million and delay treatment for their patients, Dr. Kirkpatrick and his colleagues moved the study to Mexico. A review board in Monterrey also approved the study.

So far, eight patients have been treated in Mexico. The main difference from the German study is that pain thresholds are measured with a force gauge. The German study relied on self-reporting.

Both Dr. Kirkpatrick and another provider, Dr. Robert Schwartzman, were considered cutting-edge experts on CRPS when Maya was first being treated and were deeply invested in an approach to treatment that would alleviate pain to regain function, as opposed to those recommending physical therapy and other related treatments without any measures to control a patient's pain at a first step.

There may well have been some psychological issues at play, but with context, it's not hard to understand why Beata would have believed that ketamine was the key to managing Maya's pain.

[Anonymous]

Just watched the documentary and was horrified. I believe there is culpability on the part of the hospital ( not a lawyer though), and I also believe they will offer the family a huge settlement with confidentiality clause. Hopkins will never allow all the details to be made public due to the immense negative publicity. I also believe the family will accept the offer after negotiations.

I think there are details on both sides that each party will not want made public.

I found this in an article from 2019, before the documentary, and the detail about Beata being found with an IV in her arm was not in the documentary. Not sure if it’s significant, but I’m sure the Hopkins attorneys would make extremely negative inferences from this:

“She told her family she had a migraine and couldn’t attend a neighbor’s birthday party that night. She encouraged them to go without her.

Then Beata typed two suicide notes — one to her family; the other to Haworth — and hanged herself with a canvas strap from the garage door frame. Her brother found her the next morning. Attached to her left arm was an intravenous line connected to an empty plastic bag labeled sodium chloride.”

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/venice/2019/01/27/doctors-suspicion-tears-apart-venice-family/986798007/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The doctor is the one who suggested and gave ketamine to Maya, not Beata. They saw her dramatically improve with freedom of pain. So Beata wanted to continue with the treatment that seemed to have helped her daughter. I dont see how that’s abuse from Beata.

She did her research and sought this doctor out. Smart woman, sad she died, but I think she had some mental issues going on. The documentary was frustrating to watch, specially the end. The little girl was fed things to say, “I was medically abducted and kidnapped.” I had to roll my eyes on that one.

[Anonymous]

Hopkins in Baltimore closed their own ketamine clinic about one year ago. I wonder if it was related to this case in any way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For anyone interested in the factual allegation on which the Kowalskis are relying, the COMPLAINT (most recently amended version) can be viewed here:

https://secure.sarasotaclerk.com/Search.aspx

Case No.: 2018 CA 005321 NC

Document Identification Number ("DIN"): 2816

(It doesn't look like all of the "Counts" that were recently struck / dismissed have been updated in red).

For some reason, I can't see any of the documents. Have they been removed?

Everything is still there. Once you get to the page that lists just the case, you have to click on the case number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This article hasn’t been posted here yet, but it adds some context by mentioning a few key things omitted in the documentary from the oft-redacted immunity motion.

Several doctors “personally observed that Mrs. Kowalski was aggressively hostile towards providers who disagreed with her, screaming and demanding the Maya be placed into a medically induced coma and have a pump implanted in her spine.”
Beata once stated that “Maya was in so much pain, she ‘wants to go to heaven.’”
Doctors observed that Maya “acted inconsistent with her and her mother’s claims of severe pain and disability … including standing up in her bed and sitting ‘Indian style.’”
The girl told a nurse she was “tired of these lies.”
“Maya was severely underweight and hadn’t eaten for five days before arriving … because she wasn’t ‘allowed.’”
The document notes that other facilities, including Tampa General Hospital, also suspected Beata of medical abuse. It adds that if the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), two circuit judges and a sheriff’s deputy “found probable cause to suspect abuse, the conclusion is inescapable” that All Children’s also had reasonable cause to suspect and report a potential crime.
“Most disturbingly is that Jack Kowalksi admitted to the police investigator that he witnessed the same concerning behavior from his wife that the medical professionals witnessed,” wrote Shapiro. “When he was with Maya, Maya had no complaints of pain; when Maya’s mother got home, Maya would suddenly be in pain.”
According to another court document, Jack agreed that there is a psychological component to his daughter’s condition.
If any of that’s true it paints a bit of a different picture imo. Either way it’ll be interesting to hear the arguments from both parties during the trial.

https://stpetecatalyst.com/who-is-to-blame-in-take-care-of-maya/amp/

Jack was told he couldn’t discuss Maya’s treatment or pain levels. Either the hospital also told Maya not to discuss that with her father or she didn’t bother complaining because she knew her father couldn’t do anything about the pain and that the hospital wouldn’t do anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For anyone interested in the factual allegation on which the Kowalskis are relying, the COMPLAINT (most recently amended version) can be viewed here:

https://secure.sarasotaclerk.com/Search.aspx

Case No.: 2018 CA 005321 NC

Document Identification Number ("DIN"): 2816

(It doesn't look like all of the "Counts" that were recently struck / dismissed have been updated in red).

For some reason, I can't see any of the documents. Have they been removed?

Everything is still there. Once you get to the page that lists just the case, you have to click on the case number.

Each time I click on the green envelope to open a document, I get the message "Image currently unavailable."

[Anonymous]

Within the first 20 minutes I wanted to rule out Munchausen's. I have arthritis and got it when I was 18 - just speaking to the idea of "good days and bad days" - while I no longer have days where I wake myself from a sleep, screaming in pain, I definitely have days when moving my body every way I want to is difficult. So the fact that Maya moved her wheelchair with her feet is not proof to me that she wasn't in pain.

[Anonymous]

No excuse for suicide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have offered to separate from my husband if it meant he could regain custody.

Yes yes a thousand times yes. If I were ever falsely accused of abuse, I would agree to moving out if it meant my child could live with dad instead of foster care. Absolutely.

Good for Maya's dad. I don't think the documentary said mom was offended by him "choosing Maya over her."

I work peripherally with CPS, and yes there are moms who refuse to live apart from accused child abuser husbands/boyfriends even when CPS tells her she can regain custody if she leaves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just watched the documentary and was horrified. I believe there is culpability on the part of the hospital ( not a lawyer though), and I also believe they will offer the family a huge settlement with confidentiality clause. Hopkins will never allow all the details to be made public due to the immense negative publicity. I also believe the family will accept the offer after negotiations.

I think there are details on both sides that each party will not want made public.

I found this in an article from 2019, before the documentary, and the detail about Beata being found with an IV in her arm was not in the documentary. Not sure if it’s significant, but I’m sure the Hopkins attorneys would make extremely negative inferences from this:

“She told her family she had a migraine and couldn’t attend a neighbor’s birthday party that night. She encouraged them to go without her.

Then Beata typed two suicide notes — one to her family; the other to Haworth — and hanged herself with a canvas strap from the garage door frame. Her brother found her the next morning. Attached to her left arm was an intravenous line connected to an empty plastic bag labeled sodium chloride.”

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/venice/2019/01/27/doctors-suspicion-tears-apart-venice-family/986798007/

What's the sodium chloride bag about? What does that indicate and what would Johns Hopkins attorneys infer?

[Anonymous]

I’m just seeing your reply. I believe the hospital was hoping to test the bag to check for ketamine.

The court recently ruled against Hopkins who wanted to try and prove their had been prescription fraud:
From court website

“DIN 3145 -- Plaintiff’s Motion in Limine Regarding Defendants’ Unsupported Allegations of Prescription Fraud -- Granted. Order following to see if it will be completely disallowed to even reference the possibility that Beata may have been not giving the PO ketamine as prescribed, or a more reasonable order that since the original prescriptions have now been produced that the Defendants cannot argue they are somehow unexplained or were obtained by forgery.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No excuse for suicide.

It freed her daughter. Beata died, and five days later suddenly DCF believes Maya had the same condition Beata said she had all along and Maya gets to go home. If I believed my daughter was being sentenced to a slow and painful death because of the hospital abducting her,* I would do the same thing. Especially when it became clear CPS was targeting her and trying to turn her family against her.

*In Beata’s case, the doctor literally said this - she wasn’t making it up or overreacting or being mentally ill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m just seeing your reply. I believe the hospital was hoping to test the bag to check for ketamine.

The court recently ruled against Hopkins who wanted to try and prove their had been prescription fraud:
From court website

“DIN 3145 -- Plaintiff’s Motion in Limine Regarding Defendants’ Unsupported Allegations of Prescription Fraud -- Granted. Order following to see if it will be completely disallowed to even reference the possibility that Beata may have been not giving the PO ketamine as prescribed, or a more reasonable order that since the original prescriptions have now been produced that the Defendants cannot argue they are somehow unexplained or were obtained by forgery.”

Forgot to add— the hospital is also requesting Beata’s toxicology results. This has not been ruled on yet, AFAIK.