Nobody Should Believe Me - Kowalski v Johns Hopkins All Children’s Part 1

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Andrea has been following the Kowalski v Johns Hopkins All Children's case since it first received national attention, and previously covered it in depth in our third season. Within this 4-part series, we’re revisiting the case with the benefit of additional trial testimony, released records, and appellate developments. In this first part, we’re going back to 2015 to revisit the events that set this case in motion. We’re sharing this recap now because the Kowalski case is directly relevant to themes we’ll be exploring in season 7 of Nobody Should Believe Me. The public conversation around this case—shaped by courtroom proceedings, media coverage, and documentary storytelling—has had broader implications for how medical child abuse allegations are understood and debated.  *** Try out Andrea’s Podcaster Coaching App: https://studio.com/apps/andrea/podcaster Order Andrea’s book The Mother Next Door: Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy.  Click here to view our sponsors. Remember that using our codes helps advertisers know you’re listening and helps us keep making the show!   Subscribe on YouTube where we have full episodes and lots of bonus content.  Follow Andrea on Instagram: @andreadunlop Buy Andrea's books here.  For more information and resources on Munchausen by Proxy, please visit MunchausenSupport.com The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children’s MBP Practice Guidelines can be downloaded here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

True Story Media. Profiled in the Netflix documentary, take care of Maya. So the Kowalski family is suing, of course, Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital for $220 million. Maya's mother died by suicide after the hospital filed child abuse allegation. This documentary was so disturbing to watch. We now know that Maya's family is suing the hospital for over $200 million in damages. Sarasota doctor who first diagnosed Maya said her complex regional pain syndrome

brings on excruciating pain, as does the stress. And patient complaints often fall on deaf ears. The hospital still owes the Kowalski family quite a large sum of money in his decision. The judge said the jury didn't go off the rails despite lowering that dollar amount. I've been following the Maya Kowalski story since it first broke wide in 2022. That was after Diane Neary wrote her piece about it for New York Magazine. This story was presented as a kind of true crime fairy tale, A beautiful young girl is struck down with a mysterious illness.

Her devoted mother goes on a medical odyssey trying to help her. But then, in a horrible twist, an evil group of doctors kidnapped the young girl and the mother winds up dead. This is more or less the version that made it to the big screen, or the biggest of small screens, in Netflix's Take Care of Maya. And I had a beautiful family. But then Maya started to get sick. Maya had advanced complex regional pain syndrome, and we know what the best therapy is for it. It's called ketamine.

We're just blessed that we finally seen something working, but Maya relapsed. Vyatta's explaining to the emergency room. This is what needs to be done. You don't understand how much medication it takes to control her pain. But they didn't listen. They choose Vyatta, the medical, child abuse.

And that's when they told me I had to leave, that my daughter is under state custody. And on the wings of this massive PR push, Jack Kowalski, the surviving parent, took the alleged kidnappers, Southwest Florida's Johns Hopkins All Children's, to court. And he won big time. We, the jury returned the following verdict. Claim one, false imprisonment, October 7th through October 15th, 2016. in my that were unlawfulful

that were unreasonable and unwarrentice between october seven and october 13th 2016 yes what is the total amount of medical off the medical and psychological expectations to be inferred in the future as we need to see based on the false imprisonment, occurring in October 7th and October 13, 2016. $2,496,000. I, along with many other trial watchers, was stunned by the size and the scope of this verdict. The jury found the hospital liable on all counts and awarded them $261 million in total, $41 million more than the Kowalski sought out.

Jack's children, Maya and her younger brother Kyle, openly wept while the verdict was being read. They were both under 12 years old when their mom died, and their father's legal crusade had dominated what remained of their childhoods. And through the years of litigation that led up to this highly publicized trial, the kids had been asked to relive their worst moments in depositions and in the media for an audience. You can see the toll this is all taking on them in the Netflix film Take Care of Maya, which ends with Judge Hunter Carroll, who old. ultimately presided over the civil trial, pushing their court date yet again. The cameras follow the Kowalskies into their Florida home as they react to the news, and Kyle's anguish is palpable. In the U.S. civil justice system, you can sue a wide variety of people and entities for a wide,

variety of things. But it's sort of a devil's bargain because you're likely to find yourself exchanging months to years of your one precious life for an uncertain reward. And that's to say nothing of the legal costs. Watching Maya and Kyle sob hearing the verdict, I imagine they felt an immense sense of relief. $261 million is an unfathable amount of money for a regular person. And I have no idea to what extent that number even sunk in as it was being read out. But I do remember realizing with horror that these kids probably thought this was all over. And of course, it was a long way from being over. Two years later, the verdict was vacated by a Florida appeals court, and the Kowalski's request for the court to reconsider its decision was denied. As of this taping,

Jack and Maya Kowalski have filed an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. And the reality is, true crime stories don't end with a gavel or a movie camera. Everyone who survives them has to find way to carry on. And the legal battle of Kowalski v. Johns Hopkins All Children's has implications that go far beyond the Kowalskies and their now feuding attorneys. We covered this case in depth in our third season, but we wanted to give you a recap because this case is highly relevant to our upcoming season. And even if you're a longtime listener, there's a new material here for you as new information has continued to emerge. So before we get into the aftermath of this case and this film, I want to take us back to the beginning. So what really happened to Maya

Kowalski? According to Jack Kowalski, a retired firefighter in his 50s, he and his wife, Bia, an infusion nurse, and their two children, Kyle and Maya, were living a picture-perfect life in their home of Venice, Florida, after relocating from Chicago, until one day Maya got sick. In early spring of 2015, life was good. Biata was working as an infusion nurse, helping people with their treatments at home. I was a firefighter and then eventually retired and I was able to spend more time with the kids.

We had a beautiful house, beautiful neighborhood, dream come true, paradise. But then my husband, started to get sick. That's Jack in the Netflix film Take Care of Maya. According to Jack's account in the film and his court testimony, this idyllic period in the Kowalski's life ended abruptly in the summer of 2015 during the weekend of July 4 celebrations when Maya suddenly had difficulty breathing. A photo from trial shows an adorable nine-year-old Maya Kowalski decked out for a holiday bike parade just hours before the sudden turn. Brandon Woodward,

the Kowalski's neighbor, recalled the moment that evening when something seemed to go terribly wrong. It's a very difficult noise to describe. It sounded like almost gasping panic, but somebody being insanely heard at the same time. Did it sound like a child or it sounded like a animal one? Yeah, it sounded like a kid. I almost thought it was a kid trying to make a terrifying noise.

And I kind of chuckled like, what is that? And then I realized the look on these other adult faces was not panicked, but, you know. Was this the reaction? It was a reaction of fear of not hearing what to do. And then I realized it was a child, so I figured this was not my business or my place. Something was going on that was pretty serious,

and I slowly backed out of the house. The next day, in one of the many hospital visits that would soon come to dominate their lives, the Kowalskies brought Maya to the Sarasota Memorial Hospital with concerns about asthma. But this July episode wasn't Maya's first dramatic hospital visit. The previous month, she'd gone to the ER twice for asthma-related concerns. In the latter instance, she ended up being transported by helicopter to Johns Hopkins

All Children's, where she was briefly admitted at the parents' request. The doctors did not observe any difficulty breathing during this stay. Maya's oxygenation was 99% and her asthma score was zero. When she came to the Sarasota Memorial ER once more after the drama on the 4th of July weekend, Doctors there noted that there seemed to be a psychological component to her alleged asthma. However, within two days, Maya was hospitalized once again, this time at Johns Hopkins All Children's with concerns about breathing, muscle pain, and acute weakness. By the 6th of July, Maya was in the hospital yet again, and now she was in a wheelchair.

And the doctors once more noted the odd nature of her cough, noting that it sounded like a habit cough rather than being symptomatic of asthma. But instead of pursuing a psychological evaluation for her daughter, Biazza requested pain medication. Maya saw many doctors in quick succession after the 4th of July weekend. And to hear Jack tell it in the film, she was a medical mystery to all of them.

We went to a doctor after doctor, one hospital to another, trying to get an answer. And as a nurse, Biazza, was very thorough. So she documented every doctor visit from the very beginning. But they just put their arms up in the air and said, there's nothing we could do. We don't know what it is.

In reality, before July was over, Maya had visited three world-class hospitals to be evaluated for her symptoms, starting with Johns Hopkins All Children's on July 17th and 20th, where Biotta requested Maya have a pick line place so that medication could be administered intravenously. On July 21st, the Kowalskies traveled back to Chicago, Illinois, where the family had recently moved from, to take Maya to Lurie's Children's Hospital for a second opinion. There, she was evaluated by a highly regarded specialty pain clinic. By the 30th of July, Maya was back in Florida and back in the hospital, this time for a lengthy stay at Tampa General Hospital,

where nurse practitioner Bonnie Rice noticed a concerning pattern. This note, it indicates that Maya's complaints of pain have escalated when her mother's bedside. Again, what is the significance of that entry? And it became really clear after 30 days that when her mother was there, her function would deteriorate. Yeah. And it says again here that mom was requesting oxycodone specifically. Do you see that?

Yes. She was a nurse. She was very smart. Okay. In this same note, you indicate here that Maya was observed smiling in the gym and interacting in the gym until mother arrived. And Maya began moaning and began leaning laterally, but flexed elbows with hands and flamed. Can you please explain what that line means? It means she was assuming a posture when her mother came in the room.

You voluntarily doing that? She was, in my belief and my exams, we know when it's volitional muscle movement. Understood, okay. Full disclosure, my husband, Derek, does the majority of the cooking in my house. I'm not actually sure that my kids know I can cook other than my excellent weekend pancakes, And that's my feminism. Nonetheless, we have a lot going on in my house, and my husband has a brutal work commute most days. So the grind of getting dinner on the table every night can be a lot, which is why my whole family loves HelloFresh,

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sponsors is a great way to support the show. All of the hospitals who evaluated Maya during this time noted concerns about the psychological component of Maya's issues. But with the length of time that Maya was at Tampa General, Nurse Rice became alarmed by what she saw. So the pattern became clear over time that her mother would come in and there would just be this sort of a deterioration of the whole environment. I mean, going in there was awkward. It was confrontational.

You know, as soon as her mother would come in, very little therapeutic activity. would occur. Nurse practitioner Bonnie Rice ultimately called in a report about suspected abuse, which was screened out at the time. But all three hospitals not only noted their concerns, but their observations about Maya's inconsistent reports of both her pain and her ability to perform certain tasks. Contrary to Jack Kowalski's claims that the hospitals had no idea what to do about Maya, they all came to the same conclusion independently of one another, which was that Maya was suffering from conversion disorder. Explained here by Dr. Bex, a

a pediatric hospitalist who is deeply familiar with the Kowalski case. There's the concept of conversion disorder, which as we understand it, is children present with neurologic symptoms that they are not creating, but that are somehow being perceived as being present by their bodies or by their mind. So kids can present with vision loss with no MRI findings, no spinal fluid findings, no lab findings, anything to suggest why that would be the case. but they truly have vision loss. They cannot see out of the eye that they're claiming to not see out of.

And it's not that they're lying and saying they can't. It is truly they can't. And that concept of conversion disorder is often hard, I think, for physicians to completely explain other than that you can usually tie it to some stressful event

or something else going on in the child's life that then precludes this onset of conversion disorder. The thing with conversion disorder is it's there. So if they have vision loss, it is there until it's not, and they've gone through, you know, therapies and all the things to try to reverse the process. But it's important to say that those kids, it's not in their

control. It is an altered pathway or something that the brain is not fully understanding what it's experiencing. Beata, who tragically took her own life, was not present for the trial to speak about this time in her daughter's life. Jack has been mostly the one recounting this story. However, we have a voluminous account of this time from Biata, thanks to her prolific social media documentation, which was later obtained by law enforcement. As Detective Mike Weber, a national law enforcement expert on Munchausen by proxy, explains. The detective obtained warrants for nine social media accounts, including two Facebook accounts, two Instagram accounts, a WordPress account, a GoFundMe account, a U-Caring account, a YouTube account, and a Twitter account. Now, a couple of these were Mayas, but the detective notes in her narrative that most of these appeared to have been ran by Biaata. So Maya was 10 at the time. You can't really have your own social media at 10. I suppose you can, but your parents are obviously involved in that.

And one of the things that we uncovered from Dr. Sally Smith's testimony is that one of these accounts, which was a blog, was written in Maya's voice but was clearly written by Biada. And we know that because she was updating this blog while Maya was in a coma in Mexico with pictures of Maya in a coma. And so can you explain why those social media accounts? Like, why was the detective looking at all that? What makes those social media accounts so important? They are so important because Biyata is posting in her own words about what is actually happening with Maya's health care, right? So you can then take those and compare them to what's actually going on in the hospital during visits and what she's telling the doctors. And oftentimes those two things are very, very, very different.

I've had cases where they're claiming things that simply aren't happening at all. They're climbing diagnosis that never occur. We don't know. I want to be very clear. We have no idea if that's the case in this case because it never got to that point in the criminal investigation. Right. Most of this social media activity didn't make it into the public record. However, Bia's blog, which she wrote in the first person as Maya, did.

The first entry on this blog is from October of 2015, but Biaata recounts the preceding months of her daughter's decline. Biazza talked about the June hospital visits for asthma as the onset of symptoms, not the July 4th incident later emphasized. This blog, which is only one of many social media accounts that Biata was maintaining, includes many, many pictures of Maya in medical situations, including a photo of Maya on July 7th, just days after her visit to Johns Hopkins All Children's.

The caption reads, Unable to Sit, Stand, or Walk. Biazza recounts the hospitalizations at Lurie Children's and Tampa General and expresses her frustration with Bonnie Rice in particular, who she accuses of practicing witchcraft. It's clear from Biazza's blog that a diagnosis of conversion disorder

was not what she was looking for, On the blog, she writes, and again, the Sin Maya's voice, quote, Through networking with different people, my mom happened one day to speak to one of her clients, David, who put an idea into her head of looking into the possibility of RSD. Of course, my mom declined the RSD even as a remote possibility at first, but slowly started to research it and read about it. The more she read about it, the more it seemed that I may have RSD. End quote.

Maya's diagnosis of choice is alternatively referred to by its older name, RSD, or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, and its newer name, CRPS, or complex regional pain syndrome. So what is it exactly? Dr. Elliott-Krain from Stanford, an anesthesiologist and pediatric pain specialist, explains to the jury at trial that CRPS begins with an injury or some other physical trauma. That is then followed by an unusual response in the injured area. It usually follows a rather trivial injury like a sprain. It can obviously follow a more significant injury, like a broken bone. Sometimes it follows a surgery.

It affects initially one limb of the body, the body that has had the sprain or the operation or the fall or what have you. It begins at some point after that injury occurs. I have a colleague who's an orthopedic surgeon who gets the RPS repetitively. He's an outdoor runner. He's a trail runner. So he's frequently stepping in gopher holes or snake holes and twisting his ankle. And what he tells me is that...

All right. I'll skip past that. So at some point in time, it can be days or a week or two after the injury occurs. The pain shifts from the pain of the injury, a twist or ankle or what have you, to what we call neuropathic pain, which is pain. that has its origins in the nervous system. Oftentimes, by that point in time, the original injury is healing. And the pain is very different

than the kind of throbbing deep pain of a broken bone or a twisted ankle. The pain moves to the surface of the limb, the skin, which has a burning quality. It becomes exquisitely sensitive to touch, even the lightest touch, such as pulling a garment of clothes over that skin, is so excruciating the child can't do it.

They can't sleep with bed sheets over their affected leg. They sleep with their leg either dangling off the bed or on top of the bed sheets. And then there's physical findings associated with it as well, as well as the symptoms the child's reporting. Very specific physical findings. This goes on for a length of time until treatment begins. Importantly, there's no record of a specific inciting injury or physical trauma. in Maya's medical history that would have led to CRPS, though her mom discusses gymnastics

injuries in her younger years. Maya's alleged CRPS symptoms either began with the alleged asthma symptoms in May of 2015, or the onset of pain and weakness that Jack recounts over the Fourth of July weekend. Bia was nonetheless focused on this diagnosis from early on in Maya's medical odyssey, and Maya was evaluated for CRPS by, among others, Dr. Gaddi Revivo in Chicago, where Maya was taken for a second opinion after Johns Hopkins All Children's diagnosed her with conversion disorder. Dr. Revivo is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and he directs an interdisciplinary chronic pain pediatric program associated with Lurie Children's.

Lurie Children's Hospital is consistently ranked as one of the best children's hospitals in the country, as is Johns Hopkins All Children's. Here, Dr. Ravivo testifies about Maya's diagnosis in court. Let's go back with your note here. You know, it says, you see where it says, today Maya is in pain. Do you see that? Yes. Okay. And then it says, quote, she describes the pain as constant and involving her entire body, including legs, back, head, and arms. Do you see that? I do. Is that the type of pain presentation that you would typically associate with the patient with pediatric complex regional pain syndrome?

No. And why is that? With the very nature of the definition, it's complex, but it's regional. So typically we'll see patients who present with a limb, so maybe a foot or a leg. I have seen patients that may present with a kind of hemiparesis presentation. So they'll present with a limb and the trunk. But this is a different diagnosis based on what we're saying here, based on my experience. Ultimately, Lurie's children's diagnosis was the same as Johns Hopkins

and Tampa General, that Maya was suffering from a conversion disorder. Biata and Jack would characterize this diagnosis as being a dismissal, as it being, quote, all in Maya's head. But again, that's not what this means. Conversion disorder has psychological elements, yes, but the symptoms are very real. All three hospitals recommended physical and occupational therapy for Maya and non-pharmacological interventions, but Biata continued to request pain medication and to insist that the doctors were wrong. that Maya was actually suffering from CRPS. So much of the chatter around this case revolved around the question of whether or not Maya really has CRPS.

Now, it's important to say that a child can have a genuine medical issue and that doesn't preclude much asin by proxy abuse. Their symptoms can be exaggerated or exacerbated by a parent, and that parent can subject them to harmful unnecessary treatments, limit their opportunities and abilities, and exploit them for their own purposes. Even if a child's condition is really, those behaviors are still abuse, and they still involve deception. It's not necessary to disprove a child's diagnosis to prove evidence of harm and abuse. However, in this case, we have vast amounts of testimony from doctors, medical records, and other materials that were entered into the record about Maya's diagnosis.

So while I cannot tell you, with 100% certainty that Maya Kowalski does not have CRPS, I can tell you that based on the testimony of doctors and the extensive records shared at trials, this diagnosis is questionable at best. The evidence also doesn't indicate this being a case of parental anxiety or a mom trying in earnest to figure out what was ailing her daughter. Getting a second opinion is one thing, ignoring three world-class hospitals telling you the same thing, and continuing to pursue your chosen diagnosis is doctor shopping.

Munchausen by proxy abuse is characterized by deliberate deception, and we know that Biada straightforwardly lied about Maya's CRPS diagnosis. On September 16th, 2015, Biata took Maya to a pulmonologist at Johns Hopkins. There, she reported to the doctor that Maya's current diagnosis was CRPS. And it just wasn't. No one had diagnosed Maya with CRPS at that point. Now, I'm not a doctor, and I'm certainly not an expert in CRPS. But Dr. Elliot Crane, who did an extensive review of Maya Kowalski's medical records,

in addition to testifying in court, is one of the most well-respected experts in the country. Recently retired, he's seen hundreds of pediatric cases of this rare condition as his Stanford clinic drew families from throughout the country and even internationally. Adding to this already fishy claim that Maya had CRPS, despite there being no injury or physical trauma at the onset, there is also this claim that Maya suffered from, quote, whole body CRPS. Here's Howard Hunter, an attorney for Johns Hopkins All Children's questioning Dr. Crane on the stand. What extent, well, within the universe of pediatric complex, regional pain, patients, how many present with so-called whole-body CRPS? None. Nobody does.

And why is that? Because, as I said, it starts in a limb. It's a regional pain syndrome. It can, in some cases, spread, and it does spread. But not right away. Not early in the disease. usually it's after months or actually more like years. It can affect the opposite limb.

It can spread proximally. It can affect an arm. So it can spread, but it typically spreads to other limbs. It doesn't spread to other parts of the body. I can't say why that is, but that's certainly the case. So whole body CRPS is out. What about regular regional CRPS? I can't comment on today, but I didn't see anything

consistent with the diagnosis of CRPS, except the report of pain as just pain, because there's a lot of things that cause pain, of course, including CRPS, but I didn't see anything to suggest to me that she had CRPS at any point. But just because your child doesn't have a condition doesn't mean you can't get a doctor to give you a diagnosis if you're persistent enough. And in Biazza's case, the fourth time was the charm. After her self-described networking, in the CRPS community. On September 23rd, 2015, she and Maya found themselves

in the offices of Dr. Anthony Kirkpatrick, a self-inointed CRPS expert with no hospital admitting privileges and no board certification, who ran an all-cash pain clinic in Tampa. Here he is in take care of Maya. When I first saw the Kowalski's in September 2015, it was obvious what the problem was with Maya.

It was clear and simple, CRPS complex regional pain syndrome. And his prescription? And we know what the best therapy is for it. It's called ketamine. A drug typically known for its recreational use in clubs is now making another name for itself among pain management specialists.

Ketamine. Unheard of, unfathomable amounts of ketamine. That's next time on Nobody Should Believe Me. Nobody Should Believe Me is executive produced. written and hosted by me, Andrea Dunlop. Our co-executive producer is Mariah Gossett. Our editor is Greta Stromquist. Research and fact-checking by Erin Ajai.

Additional research by Jessa V. Randall. Our production manager is Nola Carmuch. Music from Blue Dot Sessions, Sound Snap, and Slipstream.