‘Take Care of Maya’ trial: Doctor who's treated thousands for CRPS testifies on behalf of Maya
VENICE, Fla. - In court in South Sarasota County a video played showing Maya Kowalski letting out sobs as hospital staff from Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital tried to get her up and walking.
"I’m going to help you, but I want you to try to get your feet flat on the ground. There you go, good job. You’ve got it," said a staff member in the video.
Kowalski only stood for a few seconds before she collapsed in the hands of a staff member.
"That was awesome, great job. You haven’t put any weight on those legs in a long, long time," said the man in the video.
A video of Maya Kowalski trying to stand was shown in court on Thursday.
Dr. Predeep Chopra said he has treated thousands of patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. He described to jurors what he saw in the video.
"She has no motor strength to both of her legs, she’s trying to stand. Two or three times and each time her knees buckled," he explained.
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Dr. Chopra told jurors the treatments the Kowalski family sought out for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, including Ketamine and physical therapy were helping.
"She was getting her treatments. Seeing doctors, they were giving her drugs and she was starting to, there’s a whole algorithm. It’s not just giving ketamine or one drug magically everything disappears. She was slowly starting to get better and much more active so what happened was all of this at Johns Hopkins was stopped," he said.
Dr. Chopra testified on behalf of Maya Kowalski.
He said the emotional distress caused by being separated from her parents and placed into state custody could have triggered her CRPS to flare up, causing her even more pain.
"The emotional stress of having not exactly very friendly people come in every time and people who weren’t listening to her, people who were not paying attention to her time was stressing her out and that was causing a lot of her pain to flare up," he said.
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Defense attorneys for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital focused on Maya’s continued pain and questioned whether the Ketamine was truly helping her.
Defense attorneys for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital questioned if the Ketamine was actually helping.
"Based on her condition the day before All Children’s, Maya was going to be sick with crippling pain for a while?" asked a defense attorney.
"Correct. She will be sick with crippling pain her most of her life," shared Dr. Chopra.
"Right, including her hospitalization at All Children’s. Not because of what All Children’s did because that’s her condition," asked the attorney.
"Right. She did not respond to the Ketamine given to her two days before that, and then she had abdominal pain," said Dr. Chopra.
"Because the ketamine failed?" the attorney questioned on.
"That episode failed," said Dr. Chopra.