MY MOM DIDN'T HURT ME

Maya Kowalski and her family want justice for her mother, Beata, who died by suicide after she was accused of Munchausen syndrome by proxy

- MAXINE PETERS

ONE of the last memories she has of being with both her parents is a harrowing one: of them frantic with fear and panic, rushing her to hospital while she writhed in agony.

Maya Kowalski, 10 years old at the time, had severe stomach cramps related to complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a rare neurological condition that had overtaken her life.

“Her pain was so severe her knees were going up to her chest,” her dad, Jack, recalls. “She was screaming.”

He and his wife, Beata, a registered nurse, were desperate for help for their daughter – but staff at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in Florida in the US had their suspicions about Beata.

Three months later, when Maya eventually left the hospital, her condition had worsened, her family was broken and her mother was dead.

“One day I was in the ICU and my mom kissed me on the forehead and I was like, ‘I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow’. I never saw her again,” 17-year-old Maya says.

The tragic story of the Kowalskis is now the subject of a new Netflix documentary, Take Care of Maya, which delves into how accusations of Munchausen syndrome by proxy led Beata to die by suicide.

Staff at the hospital asked a social worker to look into Beata after she insisted they treat Maya with ketamine, a powerful drug that acts as an anaesthetic to treat chronic pain conditions.

But all doctors and nurses saw was an uncooperative, pushy parent – red flags for child neglect – and Maya was removed from her care.