Dr. Joseph Corcoran, former chief medical officer of HCA Healthcare, was a star witness for Maya Kowalski in her triumphant $261 million case against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH). The Kowalski family won the landmark judgment against JHACH for false imprisonment, medical malpractice, battery against Maya (then their 10-year-old patient), intentional infliction of emotional distress, wrongful death regarding the suicide of Mrs. Kowalski, and billing fraud. All of it stemmed from one child abuse doctor, Dr. Sally Smith, who refused to believe that Maya had a rare pain disorder and instead accused her mother of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare and controversial diagnosis where a caregiver imposes an illness on a child. You can read more about this case in my extensive coverage of it below:
Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital Depositions Reveal Terrifying Reality for Moms With Sick Kids
Founding Father of 'Child Abuse Pediatrics' Calls JHAC Defendants 'Conspirators' in Unlawful Acts
The Cost of State-Sponsored Medical Tyranny Exposed in Maya Kowalski Trial
Maya Kowalski Trial: DCF and Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital Threw Jesus in a Dumpster
Court TV Attacks Maya Kowalski for Going to Homecoming, Ignores Nuclear Bomb Against JHACH
Media Coverage of Maya Kowalski Trial Is Dismal
Maya Kowalski Wins $260 Million Groundbreaking Judgment Against JHACH
Acting as an unpaid expert witness, Dr. Corcoran destroyed JHACH’s defense with his inside knowledge of how hospitals are supposed to work and how JHACH failed the very basics of hospital oversight that should have stopped these offenses from happening to a patient. Corcoran sat down with me in his first interview since the verdict to answer some questions about the case.
Corcoran heard about the Kowalski case through friends while attending a dinner and immediately asked how he could help. He became an expert in the case but refused to take any payment.
“It’s hard not to be sympathetic to the Kowalski’s story,” he said. “Everyone in that family suffered.” He continued to describe how he came to understand the gruesome details of the case.
“Overnight, he emailed me the New Yorker magazine and USA Today articles about it, and when I read them in the morning, I replied back to him, ‘Tell me how I can help.’ That led to an introduction to Greg [Anderson] and Nick [Whitney],” he added.
“Over time, the need, not the opportunity, but the need really arose for me to expand my role into an expert witness, which is something I’ve never done before.” For someone who had never been an expert witness, Corcoran played the part like a pro.
When Corcoran did take the stand, the defense counsel worked feverishly to shut him up. I asked him what it was the defense did not want him to share. “What they uncovered there were so many problems that dated back to 2015… created this… I hesitate to call it a culture because it’s actually the absence of a culture, but the culture that allowed all of these bad actors to work unfettered,” he explained. “The structure of accountability was so narrowly siloed it was incumbent on everyone to police themselves.”
During testimony that came outside the presence of the jury, social worker Cathi Bedy and Dr. Sally Smith, who were both named in the complaint, worked together to accuse 300 to 400 other families of child abuse. This collusion was kept from the jury but has outraged the public.
Corcoran suggested that a panel of people, including parents whose job it is to review DCF cases within the hospital, could have been helpful in identifying a case of false allegations far before legal action was necessary.
“Their unfettered perspective would have said, ‘Hey, wait a minute! You’ve been alleging child abuse and the mom is causing these symptoms for 30, 60, 90 days. Do you want to rethink this? I think that having some perspective would probably have saved Beata’s life,” he said.
Throughout the trial, Corcoran took the stand multiple times, including at the end when evidence was reopened after the defense opened the door to the “imminent jeopardy” report The Joint Commission gave against the hospital.
The “IJ” report found very disturbing things at the hospital, including surgeons who didn't wash their hands, children who died because of those practices, infectious disease spread, and administrative negligence.
“Immediate jeopardy is only administered in about 5% of all cases,” said Corcoran, referring to the bombshell report that came out at the end of the trial, leading to a reopening of the plaintiff’s case at the final hour.
Corcoran’s presence in the trial reverberated through the trial-watching community as people connected with him on a level not usually seen with expert witnesses. On my channel, individuals in the chat commented on his good spirit and great hair. They nicknamed him Dr. Goodhair. Corcoran didn’t disappoint when interviewed after the trial, sharing his life, his dog, and his hair care routine.
Dr. Corcoran started out as a consultant but became the expert that Maya Kowalski needed in the end. He is starting a YouTube channel to discuss the problems and challenges with the medical community, as the problems the Kowalskis faced are not rare or unique. Instead, they have become widespread and worrisome. Could Dr. Corcoran be the first step to healing the breach of trust lost between patients and their doctors?
We hope so.
Dr. Corcoran's new YouTube channel will answer listeners' questions and help advocate for better patient/doctor relationships. For the full interview, click here.
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