“Parents have rights,” he said, “And they make the decision for their children.”
– Jack Kowalski

Throughout the nation, parents encounter challenges as authorities attempt to replace parents and eliminate their God-given right to authority over their care and medical decisions. In a landmark trial prominently featured in the Netflix documentary Take Care of Maya, the recent jury decision highlighted the critical importance of a parent’s right to direct their children’s medical care.

ER Visit Leads to Family Separation

In 2016, Maya Kowalski, age 10, was rushed to All Children’s Hospital of St. Petersburg, Florida, for a flare-up of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). At this point, Maya had been living with CRPS for a year and was being treated by a CRPS specialist. However, when Maya arrived at All Children’s in October 2016, the doctors there were unfamiliar with CRPS and questioned the treatment she had been receiving.

However, when her parents insisted on continuing the treatments prescribed by the specialist doctor, a child welfare agency doctor who specializes in “detecting child abuse” evaluated Maya and opened an abuse investigation. Following this evaluation, Maya was restricted from visiting her parents and kept in the hospital for three months despite her parent’s attempts to discharge her.

Maya’s parents found themselves excluded from being at her side, unable to offer comfort during this traumatic experience.

While restricted from her parents and kept in the hospital, Maya’s symptoms worsened. Maya’s parents, Jack and Beata Kowalski, found themselves caught in a legal battle to assert their parental rights.

During the trial, it came out that “In Pinellas County [Maya’s home county], children are almost two and a half times more likely to be removed from their families than the state average.” (source)

The unfounded accusations of medical child abuse led to acute stress and grief reactions for Maya’s parents. The struggle reached its tragic climax when Beata Kowalski took her own life.

“An attorney for the Kowalskis, Jennifer Anderson, said that Maya’s parents had been following orders from a doctor who had previously treated her pain syndrome, and the complaint said that Ms. Kowalski had experienced ‘Acute Stress Reaction and Grief reaction’ after being accused of child abuse and having her daughter taken away. In short, the actions of the Defendants and their agents drove both parents, but especially Beata, as she was also accused of abusing her beloved daughter inexorably towards the most extreme of human behavior,” the complaint read.” (