It's official. Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital has been found liable for the medical kidnapping of Maya Kowalski, medical malpractice, billing fraud, and driving Beata Kowalski to suicide. In a groundbreaking decision, a Florida jury found the hospital liable for every charge brought forward by the plaintiffs and awarded compensatory damages in the amount of just over $211 million. Then they awarded $50 million in punitive damages against the hospital that colluded with DCS to falsely imprison a medically complex child over false allegations that her mother had Munchausen by Proxy.
There's never been a victory like this before in civil court. Most medical malpractice suits never make it to trial, and this one included the novel cause of action, the intentional infliction of emotional distress that caused the death of Beata Kowalski. The question posed to the jurors on that count is one that will certainly be appealed but survived this jury's bar for liability, and it read as follows:
Did Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, through the acts of its employees, engage in extreme and outrageous conduct, intending that conduct to cause, or with reckless disregard of the high probability of causing, severe emotional distress to Beata Kowalski that was sufficient to be a legal cause of Beata Kowalski's death by suicide?
The answer was a resounding yes. The jury found that the conduct by JHACH created in Beata an uncontrollable impulse to die by suicide, and that conduct was a substantial factor in her death. On just that one count the jury awarded around $104 million.
This is the first time this kind of claim has prevailed in a civil case. The rest of the claims included false imprisonment, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraudulent billing, and medical negligence. The jury was unanimous and they dropped the hammer on JHACH. My only regret is there wasn't a count for the religious discrimination the family suffered.
Whether the Kowalskis will see any of the money for years to come is unknown. JHACH is sure to tie them up in appeals courts on the wrongful death claim if not others. However, their actions and the consequences of them have been fully aired in the public and no amount of appeal decisions in their favor will repair JHACH's reputation it has earned as child abusers.
Maya Kowalski suffers from a rare pain disease called complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), which the hospital refused to believe and instead accused her mother of falsifying her illness. Even after separating Beata from Maya, she didn't get better, yet the hospital continued to keep the family apart. The hospital was fighting in dependency court to ship Maya thousands of miles away from her family to be housed in "medical foster care."
This type of situation happens to more people in this country than you would want to believe. Rachel Bruno, Drake Pardo, Justina Pelletiere, and Cynthia Abcug are just a few of the cases I've covered here on PJ Media, some of whom have never seen justice for the horrific family-destroying acts perpetrated on them.
This win for the Kowalskis is a win for every family who has ever been falsely accused by an out-of-control medical staff of being a child abuser. Perhaps this huge judgment will reverberate through hospitals that their priority should be to "do no harm" and treat their patients instead of investigating them. One can hope that the insidious partnership between hospitals and malicious state agencies that claim to protect children will cease after this.
While Maya's nightmare is finally over, a bigger nightmare is beginning for JHACH. A new lawsuit has been filed against them for similar claims. The Kushnir family is suing JHACH and Dr. Sally Smith, the child abuse doctor who kidnapped Maya from her family, with the same lawyers who just won what was called an unwinnable case.
In a 57-page petition, the Kushnirs allege medical malpractice, negligent hiring, and supervision of its doctors, abuse of process, malicious prosecution, intentional interference with the custodial parent-child relationship, and civil conspiracy. Many of the same doctors involved in Maya's kidnapping are named in the suit.
The lawsuit includes shocking allegations including false allegations of sexual abuse.
Based upon the misrepresentations and bad faith allegations of the Defendants, William and Adele were removed from their parents' care and custody for approximately three months, William's condition worsened at the hands of Bayfront Health, JHACH, and their involved physicians and other healthcare providers, and Vadim and Elina were subjected to the Defendants' physical abuse, sexual abuse, and medical neglect misrepresentations and allegations.
JHACH has been hiding some very dark things that thanks to attorneys Greg Anderson and Nick Whitney are all coming out into the light. If you watched Court TV's coverage, though, you'd think Maya Kowalski was a liar. It has been absolutely awful. But anyone with a brain can see that where there is smoke there is fire.
There are a reported 300 families that USA Today has been looking into who may have been similarly abused by Dr. Sally Smith. This verdict was a resounding vindication for parents who have less and less rights to their children, their education, and their medical care. America has had enough of this tyranny and the perpetrators are going to be held accountable now.
What should happen next is a state investigation into Dr. Sally Smith, JHACH, and the Department of Child and Family Services, and if found to have engaged in criminal acts, they should face jail time. The House of Representatives in Florida also needs to remove immunity from hospitals and DCF when they use the power granted by the state to abuse the citizenry like this.
Let's go, people. Now is the time to make this a reality.
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