‘Take Care of Maya’ - Kowalski v. Johns Hopkins Trial

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Isn't CRPS somewhat difficult to diagnose? I think it's rare in children. I believe it's diagnosed by process of exclusion. I don't think it's diagnosed based on a single exam. MOO


I've had some weird pain stuff, erythromelalgia was one of them. However, the symptoms always occurred at night, which made an actual diagnosis next to impossible. It lasted for several years, but went away after a small piece of toenail was finally removed. But I had it in both feet. I basically was trapped at home after 7 pm.

Correct. There are some things that may show up on exam or imaging that, together, point to number of diagnoses in which CRPS is one of them. But there are no specific diagnostic studies that tell you the patient has CRPS.
 
I'm making my way to catch up through the trial and all documents available on the court website, I've not watched the Netflix thing as I find those types of things to be biased towards a side...

So far, and I don't know if this will be controversial here or not, I don't believe them. I'm still making my mind up as trial goes on but honestly right now, yah some mistakes in care were made but I'm believing the defense :/
 
I'm making my way to catch up through the trial and all documents available on the court website, I've not watched the Netflix thing as I find those types of things to be biased towards a side...

So far, and I don't know if this will be controversial here or not, I don't believe them. I'm still making my mind up as trial goes on but honestly right now, yah some mistakes in care were made but I'm believing the defense :/
I've been on the fence ... never have I been on the fence w/a trial until this trial. Don't like it ...
Glad I'm not on the jury. I do think there were some mistakes made in caring for the patient and the insurance fraud. moo
 
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I've been on the fence ... never have I been on the fence w/a trial until this trial. Don't like it ...
Glad I'm not on the jury. I do think there were some mistakes made in caring for the patient and the insurance fraud. moo
Same, this is a spicy one that's for sure.

I'm really really trying to see it from the Maya side and really fighting with myself over it as we are talking about a child, but evidentially there is just too much for me to believe the families version of events. 43+ medical professionals all suspecting very similar things, no clear cut medical evidence that she was ever diagnosed with what the family claim (even the asthma is debated) and man don't get me started on the ketamine! At the same time though, hospitals (especially those in the states) are ran like businesses and are often in some ways dodgy, but meh I really do believe that factious disorder played a huge part in this case, along with substance addiction, possibly begining with MBP :(
 
I totally believe Maya has this. (Sorry, not watching the trial) I've had stuff similar to CRPS myself and it is bizarre and makes you crazy.

I don't agree with the doctor that sent her to Mexico and put her in that ketamine coma. However, that is on the doctor, not the parents. Just because Maya received this treatment does not mean that her mom had MBP. And just because the family appeared to be "doctor shopping" is not MBP.


I think she is improving because she is getting better care than she previously was. Immobility makes CRPS worse. I felt leaving her in that hospital bed was the worst thing for her CRPS. It was probably very painful to get moving again, but physical therapy, movement and exercise are important parts of the treatment.

As to the lawsuit, it is a risk. I feel Maya was the one who should be awarded damages because of everything that went on at the hospital. They refused to take Maya's health seriously. However, this is a case about her mom being pushed to the brink.
 
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Dr. Sally Smith defends her professional opinion that Maya Kowalski had suffered from medical child abuse by her mother, Beata Kowalski.


During proffer in the #TakeCareofMayaTrial, Dr. Sally Smith has a heated argument with the Kowalski’s attorney.Dr. Smith defends her child abuse expertise, testifying that #MayaKowalski was allegedly medically abused by #BeataKowalski.

Dr. Smith softened her looks/prepared for the witness stand.
 

From the article:

VENICE, Fla. — There is just one more week left of defense testimonies in the trial at the center of the "Take Care of Maya" documentary. It's the case involving a Venice family's $220 million lawsuit against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. ...

... Judge Hunter Carroll has scheduled closing arguments to begin as soon as late next week and jury deliberations the following week.

... Following the final testimonies and closing arguments, barring any new developments, jurors would have at least three days on the schedule to deliberate on their verdict.
 
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Why wasn't that part of Dr. Smith's testimony in front of the jury??

Seems pretty relevant and important!
 
I'm making my way to catch up through the trial and all documents available on the court website, I've not watched the Netflix thing as I find those types of things to be biased towards a side...

So far, and I don't know if this will be controversial here or not, I don't believe them. I'm still making my mind up as trial goes on but honestly right now, yah some mistakes in care were made but I'm believing the defense :/
I fully agree, much of the evidence that hasn’t been allowed to be presented at trial is what has absolutely convinced me.

IMO lots of evidence supports the defence case, and the doctors that prescribed ketamine and administered the ketamine coma have questionable ethics to say the least. Beata’s emails and the defence witnesses this week plus the videos have really brought to light just how complex this case is.

Take care of Maya did not have the desired affect on me. And im a chronic pain patient who has experienced medical gaslighting first hand. I know it exists. I know some doctors are very dismissive. But being led to believe that all these medical professionals are on a mission to destroy one family for no reason whatsoever is a bit ludicrous IMO.

The evidence of fabrication is endless IMO and even in the documentary Beata’s true intentions were clear within the first half an hour. Those children IMO lived in a toxic environment

I hope Maya at some point receives the therapy she needs to be able to recognise that JHACH weren’t to blame. I doubt that will happen though as she has had ‘hospital are bad’ ‘doctors are bad’ ‘therapists are bad’ ‘anyone who doesn’t give you ketamine is bad’ instilled in her since she was a small child. The ‘magic’ that was ketamine treatment IMO ended up causing a whole lot of problems and wasn’t so magical after all. Possible that Maya became dependent on a medicine that she shouldn’t have even been on in the first place.

Doesn’t help the plaintiff when Maya is a figure skater, posing for homecoming pictures with her bf, being a medical influencer, wearing the gold jewellery she claimed she couldn’t wear, walking when she couldn’t walk, seemingly thriving now she is no longer in her mother’s orbit. The contradictions IMO were unnecessary. And I think fame and money are at the heart of this case. There are 220 million reasons to not tell the full story… but Maya likely has been convinced over the years that these people are out to get the family and she needs to protect her mother. Even with evidence to the contrary she probably feels the need to tell ‘her truth’ which IMO is likely the story told to her by her parents over the years. But that’s only JMO

All MOO
 
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The hospital and the doctors definitely made a lot of mistakes here. However, it's becoming more clear to me how this happened. If Beata really was repeatedly requesting such high doses of Ketamine, I'd refuse as well and wonder what else is going on, given alleged travels to Mexico for it. There are positive patient reports for Ketamine in CRPS, but it's not FDA-approved and especially years ago and especially for children. This case could have been entirely different with just as tragic an ending if the hospital had just given her high doses of ketamine too.

Using Maya's behavior as a barometer, however, is weak. There are any number of reasons Maya's behavior may have changed depending on the presence and presumably distress of her mother.
I always hate having to explain where I am coming from in a post, I hate that sometimes there is another side to see but I have a comparison experiance about off label uses and how they are very weird .
Example

naltrexone​

Has been used to treat addition problems for YEARS, research shows it is also very helpful for crohns.
I asked my kids specialtiy doc about the medication and everything i had read.
She had heard about it and agreed it showed promise but could not try that as a treatment option because it's off label . Drug users can get this medication free ,all over the place, I could not even get a coversation. Much less a prescription .Its already being used ,and has been . I think it might be the one medication I have never heard a horrid of side effect rants , in the middle of the night across my TV screen.


Supportive links ....
https://www.psu.edu/news/medicine/story/use-naltrexone-reduces-inflammation-crohns-patients/#:~:text=Eighty%2Deight%20percent%20of%20those,quantify%20symptoms%20in%20Crohn's%20patients.
https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/opioid-use-disorder/naloxone-vs-naltrexone
I can find more if anyone needs them but this demand for Maya's medication and acts Beata's seems pretty common place to me,
 
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I always hate having to explain where I am coming from in a post, I hate that sometimes there is another side to see but I have a comparison experiance about off label uses and how they are very weird .
Example

naltrexone​

Has been used to treat addition problems for YEARS, research shows it is also very helpful for crohns.
I asked my kids specialtiy doc about the medication and everything i had read.
She had heard about it and agreed it showed promise but could not try that as a treatment option because it's off label . Drug users can get this medication free ,all over the place, I could not even get a coversation. Much less a prescription .Its already being used ,and has been . I think it might be the one medication I have never heard a horrid of side effect rants , in the middle of the night across my TV screen.


Supportive links ....
https://www.psu.edu/news/medicine/story/use-naltrexone-reduces-inflammation-crohns-patients/#:~:text=Eighty%2Deight%20percent%20of%20those,quantify%20symptoms%20in%20Crohn's%20patients.
https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/opioid-use-disorder/naloxone-vs-naltrexone
I can find more if anyone needs them but this demand for Maya's medication and acts Beata's seems pretty common place to me,

Ketamine can be a very dangerous medication, much more dangerous than naltrexone, causing addiction, it can slow breathing and heart activity leading to death, especially in high doses. We literally use Ketamine to put people to sleep during surgery, and their vitals have to be monitored when we use it. We use it for other reasons too, but against the advice of the FDA. Imagine a scenario in which the doctors granted Beata's request to give her daughter high doses of Ketamine and Maya died. They would have likely been held criminally responsible for her death. This isn't really about off-label uses, which is done quite often in medicine. This is about risk vs benefit, compounded by lack of FDA-approval, compounded by lack of clarity around her diagnosis, compounded by parent-request for medication rather than evidence behind said medication. As a physician, when I prescribe something, I have to give very clear indication as to why I thought this was the best treatment for the patient and if it's not FDA approved, I have to explain very clearly why I am prescribing it off-label. That also requires me to document the diagnosis and why this is the diagnosis. Even then, if something happens, I put myself at substantial risk. This is magnified significantly when (a) it's a drug that could kill a person and (b) the patient is a child. "The mother told me to prescribe" doesn't cut it in any court of law. I can't blame any doctor for not putting their own freedom (not to mention their livelihood) on the line for a treatment they didn't 100% believe in at a dose they all agreed was too high for a diagnosis they couldn't confirm she had.

We know the end result of this case, but hindsight is 20/20. Let's turn some the facts around and imagine a scenario where a child's parent advocates for a non-FDA-approved treatment of a potentially life-threatening and addictive drug for a diagnosis that isn't entirely clear. Let's say that a parent walked in with a child in pain and requests high doses of opiates for their child, higher than any doctor felt comfortable prescribing and at a dose Mom had to travel to Mexico to get previously. And let's say we didn't have the benefit of hindsight. I doubt there are many people who would say the doctors should prescribe it, especially if the doctor isn't sure exactly what the diagnosis is. That would definitely set off red flags for me.

JMO.
 
WATCH LIVE: ‘Take Care of Maya’ Trial — Kowalski v. Johns Hopkins All Ch...
https://youtube.com/live/FZTZxCMy8Oc?si=e49seQSSvxUZTCLk via @YouTube


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