Viewers across the globe have been left gobsmacked and outraged after the release of Netflix's medical documentary Take Care of Maya.
The streaming platform recently premiered the documentary, which follows the story of a girl named Maya Kowalski, then 10 years old, who began experiencing strange symptoms related to a rare neurological condition.
Back in 2015, Maya's parents - Jack and Beata Kowalski - sought out the advice of numerous medical professionals in a desperate bid to find out what was wrong with their little girl, and came across Dr. Anthony Kirkpatrick who officially diagnosed her with CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome).
The professional then prescribed the child high doses of ketamine, but the drugs failed to work so the Kowalski family traveled to Monterrey, Mexico so that Maya could be put in a ketamine coma. The treatment unfortunately had temporary results, as Maya relapsed and experienced crippling stomach pain a year later.
Her parents rushed her to Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, where they explained that Maya had CRPS, and Beata - a registered nurse - frantically urged medics to administer a high dose of ketamine, the one treatment they believed would alleviate Maya's pain.
The request eventually raised concerns among hospital staff, who subsequently alerted a child abuse pediatrician named Dr. Sally Smith to carry out an investigation. An investigative team later accused Beata of child abuse and of having Munchausen by proxy - a mental illness where a parent makes up symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like their child is ill.
This resulted in the courts removing Maya from her family's custody, despite a court-ordered psychological evaluation determining that Beata was not suffering from any mental illness. Rather, she was just a desperate mother trying to get the best care for her sick child. Beata was prohibited from seeing her own daughter for over three months. She became increasingly despondent and ultimately ended up taking her own life.
Many of us watched on in utter disbelief as a loving, caring mother was slowly deprived of access to her own child.
Since the documentary aired, much of the anger has been directed towards the hospital and, more specifically, Dr. Sally Smith. During Maya's hospital stay, Smith was the medical director of the child protection team for Pinellas County, where the hospital was located.
It was revealed in the documentary that Smith is known for filing reports resulting in children being removed from their homes at significantly higher rates than surrounding counties. Several children's legal guardians have filed lawsuits against Smith. However, she insists that she always did her job to the best of her abilities, and has never faced personal, professional or legal consequence.
The Smith family's 2018 lawsuit against her employer, Suncoast Advocacy Services, was settled for $2.5 million, and Smith voluntarily retired from her position earlier this year.
In an interview about the case in 2022, Smith told New York Magazine's The Cut that she's "not a horrible person whose goal in life is to disrupt families," adding: "I have spent my adult life attempting to serve children in my community to ameliorate conditions of abuse and neglect."
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