Take Care of Maya (2023) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Take Care of Maya explains that staff at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital became suspicious after Maya was admitted for a CRPS relapse, largely because the ER physicians were unfamiliar with complex regional pain syndrome and the high-dose ketamine protocol she had been following at home. When Beata arrived and insisted on continuing her daughter's established treatment, hospital staff labeled her 'belligerent' and 'controlling,' which led them to suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy. After pediatrician Dr. Sally Smith interviewed Maya and Jack, the hospital concluded that Beata had been fabricating or inducing Maya's illness and reported the family to child protective services.

Foreshadowing: Early scenes show ER staff already expressing alarm at Maya's daily 1,000 mg ketamine dosage before Beata even arrives, setting the stage for the confrontation that follows.

• maya kowalski
• johns hopkins
• munchausen by proxy
• child custody
• hospital suspicion
• beata kowalski

In Take Care of Maya, Beata died by suicide after 87 days of forced separation from her daughter, having come to believe that she was the only obstacle standing between Maya and freedom. Court hearings repeatedly sided with the hospital and Dr. Sally Smith, including a denial of her simple request for a single hug with Maya, and the ongoing Sarasota County Sheriff's Office investigation left her feeling hopeless. Her death is presented in the documentary as an act of sacrifice she believed was necessary for Maya to finally come home.

• beata kowalski
• suicide
• 87 days separated
• maya kowalski
• custody case
• denied hug

Take Care of Maya details how, on October 29, 2025, an appellate court overturned the jury verdict, ruling that the trial court had erred by not granting Johns Hopkins greater legal protection in its role as a state-mandated reporter of suspected child abuse. The court reasoned that hospitals making good-faith abuse reports deserve broad immunity, even when those reports later prove incorrect. The ruling remanded the case for retrial, leaving the Kowalski family's legal fight unresolved.

• verdict overturned
• appeal
• mandatory reporter
• johns hopkins
• retrial
• immunity

During the discovery process for the Kowalski family's lawsuit, it emerged that Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital had charged the family's insurance for 174 separate CRPS treatments and services while simultaneously claiming Maya was fabricating her illness. This contradiction became one of the most damaging pieces of evidence for the defense, since the hospital could not credibly deny Maya's condition while having billed for treating it. The billing records were central to the jury's decision to award $261 million in damages.

• insurance billing
• 174 treatments
• CRPS
• johns hopkins
• lawsuit evidence
• contradiction

As the custody case progressed in Pinellas County courts, a judge sided with Dr. Sally Smith's assessment and issued a no-contact order between Beata and her daughter Maya, while Jack was permitted supervised visits. The order was based on the hospital's ongoing accusation that Beata had been inducing Maya's illness, a finding Dr. Kirkpatrick's medical evidence directly contradicted. The ruling effectively cut off Beata from her daughter for 87 days, despite Maya repeatedly crying and pleading to go home during supervised calls.

• no-contact order
• beata kowalski
• pinellas county
• custody hearing
• maya kowalski
• court order

On November 9, 2023, a six-person jury in Florida's Twelfth Judicial Circuit Court awarded the Kowalski family $261 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital after just two days of deliberations. Although the judge later reduced the award by $47.5 million through remittitur, the verdict was a historic legal vindication for a family that had spent years fighting the system. The jury award was ultimately overturned on appeal in October 2025, with the case remanded for retrial.

• 261 million
• lawsuit verdict
• kowalski family
• johns hopkins
• compensatory damages
• punitive damages

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a rare, intensely painful chronic condition that Maya Kowalski was diagnosed with in 2015 after months of unexplained skin problems, dystonia, and severe pain. Dr. Anthony Kirkpatrick determined that ketamine could interrupt the pain signals driving the disease, and when low oral doses failed to control her symptoms, he escalated to a five-day medically induced ketamine coma to essentially reset her nervous system. The procedure dramatically reduced Maya's pain, and she was kept on roughly 1,000 mg of daily ketamine for about a year to prevent relapse.

• complex regional pain syndrome
• CRPS
• ketamine treatment
• dr. kirkpatrick
• maya kowalski

Dr. Sally Smith was a pediatrician specializing in child abuse who was called in by Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital after staff suspected Munchausen syndrome by proxy in Maya's case. After interviewing Maya and Jack, with Beata notably excluded, Dr. Smith concluded that Beata had been fabricating or inducing her daughter's symptoms, and her assessment became the foundation of the state's custody case. Take Care of Maya later reveals that multiple other families had been separated through her reports, suggesting her evaluation methods were part of a broader pattern rather than isolated judgment.

• dr. sally smith
• child abuse pediatrician
• munchausen by proxy
• maya kowalski
• interview
• johns hopkins

Take Care of Maya shows that doctors at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital had little to no experience with complex regional pain syndrome or high-dose ketamine therapy, so they refused to follow Dr. Anthony Kirkpatrick's established protocol. Instead of consulting directly with him, they treated his treatment plan as evidence of medical neglect rather than a specialized therapy that had successfully controlled Maya's CRPS for a year. This institutional unfamiliarity led to Maya being weaned off her medication, a decision Dr. Kirkpatrick warned could be fatal given her advanced condition.

Foreshadowing: Dr. Kirkpatrick's earlier warning that without ketamine Maya's pain could kill her makes the hospital's refusal of his protocol even more consequential later in the film.

• dr. kirkpatrick
• ketamine protocol
• johns hopkins
• treatment plan
• CRPS
• medical negligence

In January 2019, Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Daphne Chen published an investigation into the Kowalski case that revealed multiple other families had experienced nearly identical situations at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. Her reporting showed that every case originated from reports made by Dr. Sally Smith, suggesting a systemic pattern rather than isolated mistakes. Chen's article opened the floodgates for other affected parents to come forward and ultimately helped catalyze the Kowalskis' $220 million lawsuit against the hospital.

• daphne chen
• reporter
• sarasota herald-tribune
• child welfare investigation
• dr. sally smith
• pattern

Cathi Bedy was the Suncoast Center social worker assigned to supervise Beata's limited phone calls with Maya during the custody case. Take Care of Maya reveals that Jack discovered Bedy had previously been arrested for child abuse, a deeply troubling fact given that she was evaluating a mother accused of the very same offense. Despite Maya crying for her mother and pleading to go home during the calls, Bedy attempted to have Beata's calling privileges revoked, and her past became a symbol of the system's broken oversight.

• cathi bedy
• suncoast center
• social worker
• child abuse arrest
• beata kowalski
• supervised calls

The ketamine coma was an aggressive treatment in which Maya was administered a massive dose of ketamine to induce a five-day medically induced coma, intended to break the cycle of severe pain caused by her advanced CRPS. The procedure carried significant risks but succeeded in dramatically reducing Maya's symptoms, making it possible for her to function normally for the first time in over a year. Take Care of Maya presents the coma as the family's first real hope after months of unsuccessful treatments and misdiagnoses.

• ketamine coma
• dr. kirkpatrick
• five-day coma
• maya kowalski
• CRPS treatment

Attorney Debra Salisbury discovered during the Kowalski case that children in Pinellas County were nearly two and a half times more likely to be removed from their families than the Florida state average. The statistic reflected the aggressive posture of the Suncoast Center, the privatized child welfare agency serving the county. Take Care of Maya uses this data to argue that Maya's case was not an isolated incident but part of a broader systemic pattern of removals in the region.

• pinellas county
• child removal
• suncoast center
• debra salisbury
• florida foster care
• privatization