A patient whose $213 million lawsuit judgment against a Florida children’s hospital was reversed has asked the court to reconsider the decision.
Maya Kowalski, who a jury originally awarded $261 million from St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, filed a motion Nov. 12 for a rehearing in the Florida Second District Court of Appeal. The court overturned her judgment Oct. 29, citing a state statute safeguarding mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse.
Ms. Kowalski, whose case was the subject of the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya,” sued the hospital on claims including false imprisonment, wrongful death and medical negligence after it held her for nearly three months in 2016 when she was 10, suspecting her mother, Beata, of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Beata died by suicide while Maya was in the hospital.
Becker’s reached out to attorneys for Ms. Kowalski and the hospital. Hospital attorney Ethen Shapiro referred back to a statement after the appeals court decision in October: “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.”
