Taking a child to the hospital is fraught with dangers for parents whose children suffer from rare disorders. Instead of receiving compassionate care from inquisitive doctors with a passion for healing, many parents can encounter cold indifference and skepticism that leads to false accusations of child abuse. But none are in more danger of these accusations than mothers.
PJ Media covered several cases where false allegations by hospitals or DCF/CPS workers tore families apart. Rachel Bruno sued a California children’s hospital and county officials who removed her sons over false allegations and won over $2 million. The outrageous case of Cynthia Abcug, whose child officials removed from her after false allegations of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy and a ginned-up kidnapping plot, revealed the massive efforts state workers would take to stop a mother from advocating for her rights.
In Abcug’s case, she agreed with doctors and specialists and did everything they said. That didn’t protect her from the false allegations. In the case of Maya Kowalski, who is suing Johns Hopkins All Children’s (JHAC) in Florida for false imprisonment, her mother Beata’s desire to decline treatment she believed to be unhelpful to Maya was the catalyst for false accusations against her.
The psychological disorder that child abuse doctors love to wield against problem moms, called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP), only affects women. Much like the “hysteria” diagnoses of women many years ago when doctors would order women to have sex with “young and strong men” to “cure them” from their hysteric malady, MSBP is a similarly laughable “disorder” for which there is no test or diagnostic tool. As people come to understand MSBP to be a controversial psychological fiction fraught with fraud, the medical community prefers to use terms like “factitious disorder” or “medical child abuse” to describe the same thing.
I’ve never read a case of a father being accused of MSBP. The “symptoms” include “attention seeking” and being “too interested” in the care of one’s children. This puts mothers of chronically ill children in the sights of malicious social workers and doctors who see monsters instead of worried parents when answers to complex medical issues aren’t readily apparent.
In Beata Kowalski’s case, as well as Bruno’s, Abcug’s, and others across the country, all it took was one “child abuse” doctor leveling the charge and POOF! They’re guilty! Call the state! Take the children! Abcug passed every psychological test they gave her, only showing signs of PTSD that the trauma with child services and the court gave her. No one examined Kowalski before declaring her sick and a danger to her child before barring her from the hospital where her 10-year-old child suffered from a rare pain disorder called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).
"She said I love you and I'll see you tomorrow and I never saw her again." Maya Kowalski breaks down in tears as she testifies that her mom left her in the hospital saying she'd see her the next day but shortly after her mom left the state took custody of Maya. #TakeCareOfMaya pic.twitter.com/K4vkI9KXdn
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) October 9, 2023
In most of these MSBP (or medical neglect or factitious disorder) cases, the people responsible for the false allegations never face the hot stare of a prosecuting attorney. But the Kowalskis sued All Children’s after Beata took her own life to escape the hell that the Florida Department of Child Services and the hospital put her family through. That lawsuit is currently being televised.
To get caught up on the background of this case, this is a thorough article, but the TLDR version is this: 10-year-old Maya Kowalski was under the care of treating physicians who are experts in CRPS, and they were controlling her pain with large doses of ketamine. When she checked into JHAC during a relapse, they disbelieved her diagnosis of CRPS and decided her mother was the cause of her pain and was drugging her with ketamine for no reason.
In the process of removing her mother from her, they also denied Maya access to her priest and Communion and wouldn’t allow her to have a rosary or even make friends in the ward where she was isolated. At one point, they stripped her to her underwear and took photos of her while she protested and cried with no medical reason or order to do so. They kept her under surveillance to “catch” her walking without help and forced her to wet and soil herself because they believed she could get to the bathroom on her own. She couldn’t.
After being denied by the hospital and the court the ability to see her child, Beata Kowalski hung herself, and DCF and the hospital immediately returned the child to her family a week later. Maya is now 17 and suing for damages.
Hardly seen anyone talking about the Maya Kawasaki case in America. Absolutely heartbreaking story and I hope the family win their court battle. #TakeCareOfMaya pic.twitter.com/KKNZ9gfzxx
— 🌹🌻 Katie (@xkatie96) October 10, 2023
Yesterday, the plaintiff had its best day yet and exposed what every parent fears could happen to them in a hospital. Deposition testimony is usually boring. But these depositions were very different than most and resulted in a very bad day for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
First was Dr. Laura Ann Vose, who unbelievably sat on the ethics panel at the hospital yet texted a fellow doctor disparagingly calling Maya Kowalski “ketamine girl” and admitting she knew Beata was suicidal after being separated from her child.
“Learned today that ketamine girl’s mom committed suicide yesterday. Sorry to say my prediction was correct,” wrote Vose. “We definitely did the right thing for the child.”
Related: Colorado Mom Convicted of ‘QAnon’ Kidnapping Plot that Never Happened Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail
The plaintiff’s attorneys had argued that JHAC’s actions led to the suicide of Beata Kowalski, and now there’s proof that at least one doctor knew it could happen and even predicted it would happen and did nothing to stop it. But what might be even worse is Vose’s testimony that Beata wasn’t the first mother driven to suicide at JHAC over an MSBP allegation. Vose told of another mother who committed suicide after being accused of MSBP by All Children’s in 1994-1995.
“I had a previous experience during my residency where there was a child the court had determined was Munchausen by proxy, and that mother had committed suicide,” testified Voss. “That happened at All Children’s,” she continued. “I believe it happened in my intern year which would have been 1994, or 95.”
This is a text exchange between Dr. Beatriz Teppa Sanchez at @AllChildrens & Dr. Laura Ann Vose after a mother falsely accused of Munchausen by proxy ended her life. Dr. Vose served on the Ethics Committee at JHACH.
Watch the #TakeCareofMaya trial, day 13https://t.co/6Pk5glhVBI pic.twitter.com/qfiUoxbUIi
— Tessa💜🐒 (@DrTessaT) October 11, 2023
How many mothers has JHAC accused of MSBP who have committed suicide? This calls for a full criminal investigation. There are now two suicides connected to JHAC based on MSBP allegations. How many other mothers were driven to suicide across the country due to false allegations by agents of hospitals or the state? This is something we should find out.
I searched diligently for a report of a suicide in 1994 to 1995 linked to MSBP and JHAC and came up empty. Whatever happened there was hidden until this trial revealed it. (And if you have any information on this case or know of any other parents falsely accused of child abuse by JHAC, contact me at [email protected].)
The next terrifying admission came from JHAC Dr. Joseph Perno, the chief of staff, who unapologetically declared that stripping a child to her underwear against her will and the will of her parents and taking photos while she cried was perfectly acceptable and “part of our standard care and treatment plan.”
Will you sign any "consent to treat" forms anymore after learning you can't rescind that consent when doctors want to hold your kid down, strip, and photograph them in their underwear while they cry. This is "health care?" #takecareofmaya #MayaKowalski pic.twitter.com/lXG8Niuor5
— Megan Fox (@MeganFoxWriter) October 12, 2023
Perhaps the scariest thing about Perno’s position is that the “consent to treat” form that all doctors and hospitals force you to sign when you seek medical help can be used to abuse you or your child. It appears from his testimony that hospitals believe the patient loses the right to rescind consent once that form is signed all the way up to forcible stripping and photographing your minor child against your will and without your consent.
The plaintiff’s next witness was an expert who ran another hospital, including a children’s hospital in Las Vegas, who the defense tried desperately to keep from testifying and objected to almost every question he was asked. Luckily, Dr. Joseph Corcoran, who had never testified as an expert before, managed to get the truth out. The consent form only gave permission for the hospital to use photos or videos “during the course of treatment.”
In Maya’s case, neither the photographs of her nor the 48 hours of surveillance video were used in any treatment, did not make it into the medical record, and were clearly only used to provide ginned-up evidence to the custody court where the hospital with DCF was fighting the family. Nothing that is in dispute in this case was a treatment designed to help Maya’s symptoms in any way. Instead, it appears to be an elaborate set-up created to convince a family court judge to take Maya away from her parents.
Dr. Joseph Corcoran blew a big hole in @AllChildrens defense yesterday. If it was "medical treatment" like Dr. Perno said, why didn't any of the photos or videos get into the medical record? #MayaKowalski pic.twitter.com/CYxditNoBR
— Megan Fox (@MeganFoxWriter) October 12, 2023
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