Hospital at Center of Take Care of Maya Munchausen Allegation Won't Have to Pay Family After Mom's Suicide By Samira Asma-Sadeque

A Florida court has overturned an order for a hospital to pay millions of dollars in damages to the family Maya Kowalski, the girl at the center of the 2023 documentary Take Care of Maya.

Following a 2023 trial, a Florida jury found the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital liable for false imprisonment, battery, fraudulent billing, wrongful death and intentional infliction of emotional distress — allegations by Kowalski’s family that were documented in the Netflix documentary.

As a result, the hospital was asked to pay the family $211,451,174, in addition to another $50 million in punitive damages. The trial judge eventually lowered the amount to a total $213.5 million.

But now, an appeals court has overturned that verdict, vacating the damages the hospital was due to pay, according to a disposition opinion issued on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

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Kowalski’s allegations against the hospital were exposed in the documentary, which showed the years-long struggle her family endured as a result of a rare condition she suffered, and the ensuing legal battle with the hospital.

After developing the rare neurological disorder complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in 2015, a Tampa-based doctor prescribed ketamine to the child, then 9, which Kowalski says immensely helped her.

During an emergency visit to the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital hospital in October 2016, staff reported her case to child services when her mother, Beata Kowalski, pleaded with medical personnel to administer her ketamine.

Beata, a registered nurse, was accused of child abuse stemming from Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP), a mental disorder in which a caretaker of a child either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it appear that the child is injured or ill.

In what turned out to be a grueling monthslong ordeal, Kowalski’s family alleged, she was handed over to state custody — and the hospital eventually barred Beata from contacting her daughter.

Unable to take “being treated like a criminal,” as Beata wrote in a note, she died by suicide in 2017. She was 43.

The Kowalski family eventually sued the hospital, winning at trial in November 2023.

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Wednesday’s appellate opinion stated the hospital acted “in good faith” in reporting Beata to child services, as that fell under the scope of their duty.

“This opinion sends a clear and vital message to mandatory reporters in Florida and across the country that their duty to report suspicions of child abuse and, critically, their good faith participation in child protection activities remain protected,” Ethen Shapiro, the lawyer representing the hospital, said in a statement.

PEOPLE reached out to the Kowalski family but did not immediately hear back.