The children’s hospital that was ordered to pay a family hundreds of millions of dollars for reporting a mother for child abuse is seeking a new trial.
Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, was found liable in a massive medical malpractice lawsuit that was featured in the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya.” The hospital is now requesting a new trial, saying one of the jurors acted improperly, WWSB reported.
The hospital filed a motion claiming that juror No. 1’s wife repeatedly posted on social media about the case, and accused the woman of giving her husband information that was not allowed to be presented at trial. The hospital also claims that juror No. 1 frequently posted in a “Take Care of Maya” Facebook group, in which he provided information that was not presented to him at trial.
Attorneys for Johns Hopkins say the verdict, which ordered the hospital to pay more than $260 million to the family of Maya Kowalski, is now tainted. If a judge agrees with the hospital, the original verdict could be vacated and a new trial ordered.
The hospital has denied that it acted improperly when caring for Maya.
Maya, now 17, was 10 when she was admitted to the children’s hospital after years of suffering from a rare medical condition. The civil trial related to the actions of Johns Hopkins in 2016 when staff reported Maya’s parents to children’s services. They believed Maya’s mother, Beata, was suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy and exaggerated her daughter’s illness to get attention from healthcare workers.
Beata committed suicide and, shortly after, Maya was released from the hospital and allowed to return home to her family. The family sued on seven claims, and Johns Hopkins was found liable for falsely imprisoning Maya, fraudulently billing her family, and causing them emotional distress. The jury further found that social worker Catherine Bedy had battered Maya and that Dr. Sally Smith medically neglected the girl, who was 10 when she was admitted to Johns Hopkins, Fox News reported.
Following the verdict, Maya filed a second lawsuit against the hospital, alleging she was sexually assaulted during her stay in 2016.
The allegations first came up during the first civil trial, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported, noting that Maya claimed she was in a situation with a man in a white lab coat that may be sexual abuse. Maya said she reported the incident to a hospital psychologist.
“She reported it but nothing was done. Nothing was done to make sure that I was safe and secure in that place,” Kowalski said. “I just decided that well, since it wasn’t taken seriously there, It’s not going to be taken seriously anywhere else.”
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Maya and her attorney, Greg Anderson, have filed a criminal complaint with police and a lawsuit regarding the incident.
“I am claiming that there was sexual abuse. It’s something that I was quite quiet about for a couple of years because I was worried it wasn’t going to be taken seriously,” Maya told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum last Thursday.
Ethen Shapiro, an attorney from Hill Ward Henderson who represented the hospital in the first civil trial, told Fox News in a statement that Maya’s “allegations originally arose during trial and were not admitted into the case.”
“As soon as the hospital became aware of the allegations, and in accordance with their policies, they immediately initiated an internal investigation and contacted law enforcement last month,” Shapiro told the outlet. “Federal privacy laws restrict Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital from sharing more, but the hospital takes allegations of this nature very seriously and always puts the safety of their patients above all else.”
