Re: All Children's must pay $211 million in damages in Maya civil trial

[Hit them harder]

On 19 Jun 2023, MattWalsh <now...@protonmail.com> posted some
news:u6qvnr$278pd$5...@dont-email.me:

> Another abusive left-wing queer employing shithole gets the punishment
> it deserves.

VENICE — Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital falsely imprisoned and
battered a 10-year-old Venice girl and contributed to her mother’s
suicide, according to a jury that awarded damages of more than $211
million to her family.

In a major legal defeat for the St. Petersburg hospital, the jury on
Thursday found that the hospital engaged in “extreme and outrageous”
conduct in its treatment of Maya Kowalski and her family after an
October 2016 emergency room visit. The girl’s mother, Beata Kowalski,
took her own life after Maya was removed by the state and sheltered at
All Children’s for three months.

The jury of four women and two men sided with the Kowalskis on every
question they were asked to adjudicate. All Children’s conduct
contributed to Beata’s Kowalski’s death, they said, and the hospital
falsely imprisoned Maya when it blocked the family from leaving the
hospital with their child.

Damages were awarded for the hospital’s decision to place the then
10-year-old girl in a room equipped with video surveillance for 48 hours
and to strip her down to her shorts and training bra and photograph her
without permission from her parents or a court.

There was also an award for the conduct of a hospital social worker who
conducted the photography of the girl and who sometimes kissed and
hugged the girl and sat her on her lap.

The verdict in a sometimes fractious eight-week civil trial in Sarasota
County came on the third day of jury deliberation. As it was read to the
court, the family, who had fought for five years to get the case in
front of a jury, sobbed and held each other. Maya clung onto her
mother’s rosary beads.

In addition to the financial blow to All Children’s, the case has
generated worldwide headlines after it was turned into a documentary
called “Take Care of Maya.” Released on Netflix, it was viewed almost 14
million times in the first two weeks after its June release.

The final amount the hospital will have to be pay will likely be higher
still, as the jury ruled the hospital should also pay punitive damages
for the counts of false imprisonment and battery. Punitive damages are
intended to punish harmful behavior and deter similar future conduct.

Hospital attorneys said they will appeal the verdict based on “clear and
prejudicial errors” and accused the Kowalskis’ attorneys of misleading
the jury.

“The facts and the law remain on our side, and we will continue to
defend the lifesaving and compassionate care provided to Maya Kowalski
by the physicians, nurses and staff of Johns Hopkins All Children’s
Hospital and the responsibility of all mandatory reporters in Florida to
speak up if they suspect child abuse,” said attorney Howard Hunter in a
statement.

In closing statements on Monday, Greg Anderson, lead counsel for the
Kowalski family, characterized the hospital’s defense of its actions as
“revisionist history” that attempted to blame the family for the
hospital’s mistreatment of Maya and her mother. All Children’s doctors,
he said, wanted to punish a mother who dared to question their medical
expertise.

“What was the purpose of all this other than arrogance and the belief
they could get away with it,” he said.

Maya already had a diagnosis and had been treated for complex regional
pain syndrome roughly a year before her family brought her to All
Children’s.

But doctors there were skeptical of the diagnosis and, instead, called
the state abuse hotline to report Maya’s mother, Beata Kowalski, for
suspected medical child abuse. After a child protection investigation, a
judge ordered that Maya be removed from her family and sheltered at the
hospital. After 3 months with no physical contact with her daughter,
Beata Kowalski took her own life.

Judge Hunter Carroll had ruled before the trial that the hospital could
not be blamed for the state’s decision to shelter Maya at the hospital
nor for a decision by doctors to report Beata Kowalski to the abuse
hotline.

Attorneys for the Kowalskis centered their case on the hospital’s
failure to treat Maya for the pain syndrome, a rare neurological
condition that can cause spontaneous and often excessive pain from
something as mild as a touch.

Pradeep Chopra, a pain management and anesthesiology doctor from Rhode
Island who provided the dependency court with an evaluation of Maya’s
medical condition, testified that the girl had the rare pain syndrome
often nicknamed the suicide condition because the pain can be so
debilitating.

In doing that, he said, All Children’s doctors deviated from the
accepted standard of care for the pain condition and caused Maya’s
health to worsen. She had previously been treated with infusions of
ketamine, an anesthetic drug.

Timothy Brewerton, an adult and pediatric forensic psychiatrist,
testified that Maya; her brother, Kyle Kowalski; and her father, Jack
Kowalski, all suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, major
depressive disorder and complicated traumatic bereavement from the
trauma they endured.

Maya, now 17, cried as she testified about her separation from her
mother and how she was told she would not be able to attend a court
hearing where her mother would be present if she did not agree to being
photographed.

Joseph Corcoran, a retired hospital administrator who reviewed reports
on All Children’s as a witness for the family, told jurors that All
Children’s employees had reported a culture of retaliation against those
who spoke up and that the hospital’s organization prevented effective
oversight by its governing board.

“It was a totally dysfunctional organization and the Kowalskis paid the
price,” Anderson said Tuesday during closing statements.

All Children’s attorney Ethen Shapiro said the hospital’s treatment of
Maya was safe and evidence based. The hospital decided against settling
the case out of court because it would have a chilling effect on those
in the medical field and others who are required by law to report
suspected child abuse.

The hospital’s defense included testimony and medical documents showing
that doctors from other hospitals who had treated Maya were also
skeptical of the pain syndrome diagnosis. Their notes included
references to her condition including a psychological component or
conversion disorder, where a patient experiences pain or other symptoms
even though there is no underlying cause.

The defense also showed the jury emails written by Beata Kowalski that
they said showed that ketamine treatments were causing memory loss and
hallucinations. One referred to when the family went to Mexico for a
ketamine coma, a procedure where a patient is given a dose high enough
to induce a coma that lasts several days. The procedure is not approved
by the FDA.

Shapiro said Maya’s medical records confirmed what other doctors had
testified: her medical history was one of “unnecessary medication given
at dangerous levels.”

Hospital doctors were right to report suspected child abuse and to
question the treatment her parents were demanding when they arrived at
the hospital, he said.

“The coward’s way out is to let them leave,” Shapiro said. “People who
care about children do not let that child walk out the door without
talking to the family.”

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2023/11/09/all-childrens-st-petersbu
rg-maya-netflix-damages/