Maya Kowalski Testifies During 'Take Care of Maya' Trial About Hospital Staff: 'I Was Crying'

The Kowalski family is suing Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital for allegedly abusing Maya Kowalski, then 10, and accusing her mother of Munchausen by proxy

Maya Kowalski, the teen at the heart of a $220 million lawsuit against a Florida hospital, took the stand on Monday, breaking down in tears while recalling how a staff member wouldn’t let her talk to her mother when she was being held in state custody.

Asked about overhearing a conversation between a staff member at the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., and her mother in 2016, Maya, now 17, recalled, “I remember that my mom was on this phone call and the person who she was speaking to...claimed that I never asked to speak to my mom. That I was doing fine. I was ok in my room. I hadn’t had any questions about why my parents weren’t allowed to see me," according to video of the testimony posted by Fox 9.

“And that infuriated me so much because all I did for days on end was demand to speak to my parents,” she said, as tears streamed down her face in the video shared by the outlet. “That’s all I wanted to do, and I most certainly wasn’t just sitting in my room. I was crying."

Maya’s family is suing the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., for allegedly accusing her mother, Beata Kowalski, of Munchausen by proxy, which they say led to her 2017 suicide.

Munchausen by proxy is a mental disorder in which a caregiver fakes or causes symptoms to make a child appear to be sick.

Maya’s father, Jack Kowalski, filed the $220 million lawsuit alleging that the hospital separated his wife, Beata, from their daughter, Maya, who says she was “held captive” when child protective services in Florida took her into state custody for three months in 2016 when she was 10.

Jack filed the lawsuit in 2018 on behalf of his children, Maya and Kyle, and the estate of his late wife, alleging medical malpractice, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The ordeal was chronicled in the haunting Netflix documentary Take Care of Maya, produced by PEOPLE contributor Caitlin Keating and was the subject of a PEOPLE cover story in June.

The family's ordeal began in 2015, when Maya was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a rare neurological condition that causes excruciating pain in response to the slightest touch, PEOPLE reported previously. She was administered a ketamine treatment by a Tampa doctor who specializes in CRPS.

Related: A Shocking Accusation of Munchausen by Proxy Leads to a Mom’s Death by Suicide: 'I Want Justice' (Exclusive)

In 2016, Maya was checked into the Children's Hospital for debilitating stomach pain. Hospital staff reported Beata, a registered nurse, to DCF after she repeatedly requested Maya be treated with ketamine, saying the drug had been effective for Maya in the past.

A Harrowing Ordeal

In his opening statements on Sept. 21, hospital attorney Howard Hunter said staff members believed Beata suffered from Munchausen by proxy and wanted to protect Maya by reporting her to the Child Abuse Hotline, Fox 13 News reports.

Hospital attorneys claimed Beata pushed for care they deemed “aggressive.”

While DCF investigated the allegations, a judge ordered Maya to be held at the hospital under state custody for 87 days. During that time, she wasn’t allowed to see her mother or be checked out of the hospital by another family member.

Jack testified last week that he and other family members were told that they would be arrested if they took Maya out of the hospital, Fox 13 reports.

During his opening statements on Sept. 21, Kowalski family attorney Greg Anderson argued that taking Maya away from Beata led to Beata's suicide.

He alleged the hospital's actions "caused [Beata], in the end, to lose completely and utterly her ability to control her maternal instinct, and the fact outweighed the survival instinct,” Fox 13 reports.

As a result, Anderson said, Maya and her brother Kyle were "denied" a "loving, caring, and amazing mother," he added, as Maya shed tears seated behind him, per the outlet.

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Beata “was deteriorating," because she wasn't allowed near her daughter and because of the allegations of child abuse against her, Jack Kowalski, Maya’s father, told PEOPLE in June. Jack added that it “destroyed” the mother of two when a judged denied her a request to hug Maya.

Related: An Allegation of Munchausen by Proxy, a Mom's Suicide, a Daughter's Pain: 'Take Care of Maya' Exclusive Clip

In January 2017, without being able to see her daughter and stressed from the accusations of abuse, Beata died by suicide.

“I’m sorry,” she wrote in an email discovered after her death, “but I no longer can take the pain being away from Maya and being treated like a criminal. I cannot watch my daughter suffer in pain and keep getting worse.”

The trial will determine whether the entire series of events could have been prevented and whether the hospital had a role in Beata's suicide, Fox13 News reports.

The family is suing the hospital for $220 million. The Kowalski family demands $55 million be in compensatory damages, and $165 million be paid in punitive damages, according to WTSP.

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