Johns Hopkins Depositions Reveal Horrific Ordeal for Mothers of Sick Children

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Parents of children with rare disorders face many dangers when they take their children to the hospital. Many parents may not receive the compassionate care they deserve from doctors who are passionate about healing. Instead, they can face cold indifference or skepticism which leads to false accusations. Mothers are most at risk of false accusations.

We have covered cases in which false accusations by DCF/CPS or hospitals tore families apart. Rachel Bruno won more than $2 million in a lawsuit against a California Children’s Hospital and county officials for false accusations that led to the removal of her sons. Cynthia Abcug’s case, in which officials took her sons away after false accusations of Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy, and a fabricated kidnapping plan, showed the extent of state workers’ efforts to prevent a mother from fighting for her rights.

Abcug listened to doctors and specialists and followed their advice. This did not protect her from false accusations. Maya Kowalski is suing Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHAC), in Florida, for false imprisonment. Her mother Beata’s refusal to provide treatment that she thought was unhelpful for Maya led to false accusations.

Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) is a psychological disorder that doctors who abuse children love to use against mothers with problems. It only affects women. MSBP, which is similar to “hysteria,” a condition that doctors used to diagnose women with many years ago and then order them to have sex “with young and strong men” in order to “cure” them from their hysteric malady by having sex. There is no diagnostic test for MSBP. Medical professionals prefer to call MSBP a psychological fiction that is rife with fraud.

I have never heard of a father accused of MSBP. These “symptoms” can include “attention-seeking” and “too much interest” in one’s child. Social workers and doctors will mistakenly see mothers as monsters when they don’t know the answers to complicated medical problems.

All it took for POOF to happen in the case of Beata Kowalski, Bruno, Abcug, and other cases across the nation was for one doctor to accuse them. They’re guilty! Call the State! Abcug failed every psychological test she was given and only showed signs of PTSD due to the trauma that her experience with Child Services and the Court caused. Kowalski was not examined before she was declared ill and a danger to her child. She then had to be barred from the hospital, where her 10-year-old child suffered from a rare disorder of pain called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

In the majority of these MSBP cases (or medical negligence or factitious disorders), the people who made the false accusations never have to face the hot gaze of a prosecutor. The Kowalskis, however, sued All Children’s Hospital after Beata committed suicide to escape the hell the Florida Department of Child Services (and the hospital) put her family through. This lawsuit is being broadcast on television.

This is a detailed article that will give you a good overview of the case. However, the TLDR version of the story is: that Maya Kowalski, 10, was being treated by CRPS experts who were administering large doses of ketamine to control her pain. She was admitted to JHAC after a relapse. They disbelieved the diagnosis of CRPS and thought her mother was the source of her pain.

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.

Beata Kowalski, who was denied access to her child by both the hospital and court, hung herself. DCF and the hospital returned her child to the family one week later. Maya, now 17, is suing for damages.

Yesterday, the plaintiff’s best day ever was yesterday. It exposed what parents fear could happen in a hospital. Deposition testimony can be boring. These depositions, however, were different from most others and led to a bad day for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.

The first was Dr. Laura Ann Vose who, unbelievably, sat on an ethics panel in the hospital but texted a colleague doctor calling Maya Kowalski a “ketamine girl”. She also admitted that she knew Beata had suicidal thoughts after being separated from her child.

“I learned today that the mother of the ketamine girl committed suicide yesterday.” Vose wrote, “Sorry to say that my prediction was right.” “We did the right thing by the child.”

The plaintiff’s lawyers had argued that JHAC’s action led to Beata Kowalski’s suicide. Now, there is proof that at the very least one doctor was aware of this possibility and predicted that it would occur and yet did nothing to prevent it. Vose’s testimony, however, may be worse. She said that Beata was not the first mother to commit suicide after an MSBP accusation at JHAC. Vose spoke of a mother who killed herself after she was accused of MSBP in 1994-1995 by All Children’s.

Voss testified, “I had an experience in my previous residency with a child that the court determined to be Munchausen-by-proxy and whose mother committed suicide.” She continued, “That happened at All Children’s.” I believe that it happened during my internship year, which would have been in 1994 or 1995.

How many mothers have JHAC accused MSBP of? This situation calls for an in-depth criminal investigation. Two suicides are now linked to JHAC, based on MSBP accusations. How many more mothers have been driven to commit suicide in the United States due to false accusations made by hospital agents or state agents? We should investigate this.

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].)

Dr. Joseph Perno was the JHAC chief of staff and he made a shocking admission. He declared that it was acceptable to strip a child down to her underwear, against the wishes of the parents, and take photos of the child while she wept. This is “part of our treatment and care plan.”

Perno believes that the consent to treat form, which all doctors and hospitals make you sign before they can provide medical care, could be abused against you or your child. His testimony suggests that hospitals think that once a patient signs the consent form, they lose the right to revoke consent. This could include stripping your child and taking pictures of them against their will.

The defense objected to nearly every question asked to the plaintiff’s expert, who was a hospital administrator who had previously run a children’s clinic in Las Vegas. Dr. Joseph Corcoran was able to reveal the truth, despite never having testified before as an expert. The consent form allowed the hospital to only use photographs or videos “during treatment.”

Maya’s photographs and 48 hours of video surveillance were not used for any kind of treatment. They were also not entered into her medical records. The only use they had was to fabricate evidence in the custody court, where DCF, the hospital, and the family were fighting. In this case, there is no dispute that the treatment was designed to alleviate Maya’s symptoms. It appears that it was a clever ploy to get a judge in a family court to remove Maya from her parents.

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