Appearance alert: on with Megan Fox

I joined Megan and her friends as we examined a startling transcript from Maya Kowalski's CPS dependency.

Screenshot from a recent episode of Megan Fox Investigates, where I joined Megan and her crew

The band was back together again as I joined Megan Fox on her show Megan Fox Investigates.

Megan has been closely following the Maya Kowalski civil trial.

Maya is the subject of the celebrated Netflix documentary Taking Care of Maya.

Maya was ripped from her parents by Child Protective Services (CPS) in Florida and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital because the staff, led by Dr. Sally Smith, became convinced that what other doctors diagnosed as complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) was instead Munchhausen by proxy by her mother.

In effect, Maya was not sick or hurt, but instead, her mother was convincing her of this pain so her mother, Beata Kowalski, could get attention.

Johns Hopkins was not in agreement with other doctors regarding Maya’s diagnosis. Here is part of a local Fox story.

While the jury didn’t hear Maya’s testimony on Tuesday, they did hear about the letter from her original pediatrician, Dr. John Wassenaar. Maya’s mother, Beata, gave him her letter, and he kept it as part of Maya’s medical record. 

"I thought it underscored that she wasn’t being abused, people weren’t doing things to her that put her in pain" said Dr. Wassenaar said. "It underscored to me how much she loved her parents and how much she wanted to be reunited with them."

Beata eventually committed suicide from the ordeal. This hospital made conclusions based on opinions, not facts, and now her mother is dead.

The family is now suing the hospital because, as it turns out, they were wrong. Maya’s pain was real. The Munchhausen was non-existent, and this hospital, supposedly one of the finest in the world, tore up this family for nothing.

Megan got her hands on a dependency hearing from this case from 2016. This is no small deal. Courts guard these hearings like they are the Mona Lisa, so this is a rare glimpse into what happens in the name of protecting children.

The hearing occurred on December 29, 2016, and it was presided by Judge Lee Haworth.

Judge Lee Haworth, from the Sarasota Herald Tribune

I joined Megan for a reading. I was David Silverstein, a CPS lawyer.

We only got through half the hearing, but it was clear that neither CPS nor Johns Hopkins knew what was wrong with Maya when they claimed that her mom had Munchhausen.

Furthermore, Maya was in the hospital’s care for nearly two months at the time of the hearing, and she wasn’t getting better.

The doctor testifying here was Dr. Catherine Major, and she continued to claim that Maya had conversion disorder- another term for Munchhausen- but she also claimed that Maya was still in pain.

Her mom was no longer in her life, so how was she still having pain which was “inorganic” as Dr. Major claimed?

Dr. Major testified she was neither an expert in CRPS nor was she a psychologist, but she somehow diagnosed Maya with conversion disorder.

Dr. Major also testified that Maya became angry and withdrawn, being isolated from her family.

You don’t need to be a doctor to see that Hopkins violated the first rule of the Hippocratic oath: first, do no harm. They didn’t know what was wrong with her but removed her from her family and provided specific treatment anyway. They continued down this path even after the treatment failed to get results.

The hospital is being sued for more than $200 million.

In honor of my reunion with Megan, here is one of the best shows she and I did from 2021.