Munchausen syndrome by proxy<\/a>\u00a0(MSbP) – a mental health condition where the affected falsely acts like someone within their care is sick.\u00a0<\/p>\n ![\"Maya](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97276441-14555877-image-a-2_1744661788219.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Maya is leaving behind her home state altogether, along with the painful memories it holds of her mother\u2019s death and her own medical kidnapping<\/p>\n
![\"Maya](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97275845-14555877-Maya_was_just_10_years_old_when_she_went_to_hospital_with_a_debi-a-11_174520868885.jpeg\")
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Maya was just 10 years old when she went to hospital with a debilitating pain. Doctors accused her mother of abuse and Maya didn’t see her for 87 days\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/72426251-14555877-The_story_of_Maya_s_medical_kidnapping_and_the_agonizing_journey-m-8_1744662516941.jpeg\")
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The story of Maya’s medical kidnapping and the agonizing journey that drove her mother Beata (second from right) to death is the focus of the harrowing Netflix documentary ‘Take Care of Maya’<\/p>\n
She underwent a court-ordered psychological evaluation which determined she did not have MSbP.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, Maya remained in the custody of the state and, for months, was allowed only minimal contact with her family.<\/p>\n
While confined to her hospital bed in December 2016, Maya wrote a letter to the judge overseeing her case, outlining in excruciating detail how she was in more pain and begging him to let her see her family over Christmas.<\/p>\n
Maya’s lawyer also asked the court if there was ‘any way’ she could simply see her mother to give her a hug, but the judge refused.<\/p>\n
She only saw her mother once over the 87 days \u2013 when Maya appeared in court in January 2017 for a dependency hearing, where a judge would consider if she could return to her family.<\/p>\n
Maya was in a wheelchair, and her family and legal team said she was looking ‘worse’ than ever, despite almost three months in the hospital.<\/p>\n
Beata died by suicide 48 hours later, believing that removing herself as a perceived obstacle was the only way to get her daughter better care.<\/p>\n
The family sued JHACH, accusing the hospital of medical malpractice, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress among other things.<\/p>\n
They were stunned when they found staff had billed their insurance for 174 CRPS treatments – a remedy for the condition they\u2019d accused her mother of manufacturing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Five months after Take Care of Maya\u2019s streaming premiere, a Florida jury found the hospital had falsely imprisoned Maya and contributed to her mother’s death – the Kowalskis were awarded $261 million in damages.<\/p>\n
The amount was later reduced to $213.5 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A judge struck down the hospital\u2019s demand for a retrial. JHACH is appealing the decision, insisting they were not responsible for Beata’s death because she wasn’t in their care.<\/p>\n
![\"Maya](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97276431-14555877-image-a-9_1744662542953.jpg\")
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Maya started learning the piano at three years old with her mother’s support. A natural performer, she is now hoping to put her ordeal behind her by moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trying to put her traumatic childhood behind her\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maya tries not to dwell on the experience.<\/p>\n
\u2018We have a limited time on this Earth,’ she says profoundly, ‘and why would I want to spend even a fraction of that thinking about the worst things that have happened to me?\u2019<\/p>\n
Instead, she looks to the future, focuses on spirituality and meditates overlooking the lake and private dock behind the Florida home she has been sharing with her father and younger brother.<\/p>\n
In addition to concentrating on mental health, Maya does physical therapy exercises in her family\u2019s pool. But her pain has still not completely gone away.<\/p>\n
\u2018I have my moments where it is worse, and I always get really scared,’ she tells the Daily Mail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018My biggest fear is being as sick as I used to be, but I am starting to do the things I know work for my pain management and promising myself that I\u2019m going to take care of my physical being.<\/p>\n
\u2018I feel like the work has paid off. I\u2019m walking.\u2019<\/p>\n
Still, she has limitations. She tried figure skating again \u2013 something she\u2019d enjoyed doing with her mother \u2013 but \u2018noticed the pain was getting a little bit uncontrollable\u2019 and stopped.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, Maya says, she\u2019ll feel pain in her leg and lower back and \u2018randomly\u2019 in her left wrist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A few months before her 19th birthday, she moved with her father and brother to Odessa, 95 miles north of the home she grew up in, to mark a new beginning.<\/p>\n
Maya still has \u2018beautiful memories\u2019 from her old house, but couldn\u2019t escape the fact that it was where her mother died.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s like every day I was reminded that she had killed herself,\u2019 she says. \u2018It was time for a change.<\/p>\n
\u2018Also, people in the community started to notice us for our traumatic history,’ she recalled, adding that she has ‘a hard time’ when people she doesn’t know have preconceived notions about her based off ‘the worst part of my life.’<\/p>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97276435-14555877-image-a-10_1744662650723.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
In addition to concentrating on mental health, Maya does physical therapy exercises in her family\u2019s pool. But her pain has still not completely gone away<\/p>\n
Healing through pursuing her passion<\/p>\n
Immediately after the move farther north, Maya didn\u2019t know what to do with herself.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d earlier been accepted into the University of Miami and planned to study business marketing, but also considered becoming a homicide detective.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, she decided to forego the classroom completely for now.<\/p>\n
\u2018I think I would be a lot more stable just starting my life as an adult, as opposed to going to school and then worrying about what people think of me,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
\u2018From an emotional maturity standpoint, I definitely am a few years above average \u2013 which I see as a gift now, but it has been hard to cope with,\u2019 she tells the Daily Mail. \u2018I feel like an alien most of the time.\u2019<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also emerging from what she calls \u2018one consistent’ eight-year-long depressive episode where the trauma kept piling up.<\/p>\n
It was \u2018during a depressive episode\u2019 after moving to Odessa that Maya leaned into a talent and passion that\u2019s now sending her life in a new direction: the performing arts.<\/p>\n
\u2018I looked up things in the [Odessa] area, and I found an acting studio,\u2019 she tells the Daily Mail. \u2018It was the first time I had genuinely laughed and smiled in a long time.\u2019<\/p>\n
A natural performer, she wanted to be a pop singer as a child and, with her mother’s support, started learning piano at three years old.<\/p>\n
\u2018I remember going to her about it, and she took it upon herself to educate herself on the very basics before putting me in class,\u2019 says Maya.<\/p>\n
Beata would listen to her daughter play while working and \u2018found it very relaxing,\u2019 Maya says. There\u2019s a Yamaha baby grand in the pristine white living room of their new home that she likes to play at sunset.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d been taking vocal coaching twice a week up until recently but hasn\u2019t performed much publicly since her mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\u2018When I sing, I think of her\u2026 it\u2019s very emotional for me,\u2019 she says. \u2018I always end up crying.\u2019<\/p>\n
She has focused on acting – something she used to love doing in school productions until she got sick – and found it a very effective outlet for channeling her pain and emotion.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve only been acting for four months, and\u2026 I have so much room to grow,\u2019 she says. \u2018I don\u2019t think I\u2019m that great; I feel that I\u2019m decent\u2026 but I know one of the silver linings of everything I\u2019ve been through is that it has added so much life experience \u2013 and that life experience, I think, is more beneficial than talent, or what other people call talent, because it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n
\u2018When you\u2019re able to excavate those emotions and apply them to these projects, it\u2019s actually very healing, as well,’ she said, adding that it’s allowed her to let go of some anger, sadness and hurt.<\/p>\n
She considers this catharsis a ‘privilege.’<\/p>\n
‘I\u2019m able to have this outlet to kind of project all of it in a healthy way… I\u2019ve gotten to this place where I feel very grounded. I feel very calm,\u2019 Maya said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Obviously, I still struggle with sadness and anger and frustration, but the difference is, I have a coping mechanism \u2013 and for all people, at the end of the day, you have to learn how to forgive.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maya can now frequently be found filming audition tapes or flying to jobs. Despite her newbie status, she\u2019s already worked on projects that include a YouTube comedy series, a Hallmark movie and a dystopian short film.<\/p>\n
‘One day, I want to be in a feature film,’ she says. ‘And I just want to feel that I’m making movies that matter.’<\/p>\n
Some collaborators know her history, such as the director who cast her as ‘girl who\u2019d lost her mother’. Others have no idea. And when it comes to genre, Maya says she does \u2018gravitate towards drama, horror and dark comedy.\u2019<\/p>\n
The acting community has also introduced her to a new circle of \u2018soul friends\u2019 she would never have expected getting close to.<\/p>\n
\u2018I actually feel like they are my best friends,\u2019 she says. \u2018It\u2019s hard to find people here (in Florida) that I could connect with.<\/p>\n
![\"Beata](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/75429267-14555877-Maya_s_mom_Beata_right_took_her_own_life_after_she_was_diagnosed-a-11_174466613854.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Beata took her own life in the garage of the family home in Florida after only seeing Maya once in 87 days\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018And these people have gone through a range of things as well. So I think, the collective of their experiences and mine – we just have a different type of bond.\u2019<\/p>\n
The unbreakable bond with her father and brother\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her strongest bond, though, seems to still be with her brother, Kyle, who\u2019s now 17 and keeping out of sight in Odessa.<\/p>\n
\u2018I think the trials of our life have bonded us together, and even though we\u2019ve experienced them from very different angles, we still have that underlying understanding of pain,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
Kyle and Jack\u00a0accompanied Maya to California in February to help find a place for her to live.<\/p>\n
The trip coincided with Beata\u2019s birthday – she would have turned 52 this year.<\/p>\n
The trio celebrates the day together every year, whether it be with dinner, a cake or Beata\u2019s favorite, gelato – this time, they found somewhere in LA where they could enjoy it in her memory.<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath of her mother\u2019s death, Maya says, \u2018we talked about her a lot.<\/p>\n
\u2018And then I think when the trial happened, we all got very quiet \u2013 because long days, emotionally taxing days, and then we all had to decompress.<\/p>\n
\u2018Now we still talk about her, and we\u2019ll share memories, but it\u2019s always in a really positive light.’<\/p>\n
Keeping her mother’s memory alive\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The family will recall expressions and words Beata would use, fondly remembering things she loved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are echoes of their matriarch throughout the new home \u2013 whether it be her rosary, which Maya keeps within easy reach on her bedroom desk, or their dog’s middle name.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They brought Chelsea Benya\u00a0Kowalski – a Yorkie – home in the aftermath of the suicide.<\/p>\n
The middle name \u2018doesn\u2019t make sense to a lot of people,’ Maya explained, ‘but it\u2019s a nickname in Polish for Beata.’<\/p>\n
During moments of doubt and difficulty, it\u2019s her mother\u2019s spirit that Maya tries to channel.<\/p>\n
\u2018I obviously wish she was still here,’ the teen says. But she remembers her mother as ‘so bold and audacious and brave \u2013 and no BS.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Maya](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97279437-14555877-image-a-12_1744666250070.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Maya holds her mother’s rosary at the home she is preparing to leave. She has tried to channel Beata’s drive as she takes the bold step to move across the country<\/p>\n
\u2018She was very goal-driven, and\u2026 she had this self-respect that I admire so much. I wish I had a little bit more of that.\u2019<\/p>\n
Maya calls her \u2018strong, like strongest person I know. And whenever I\u2019m feeling uneasy or self-doubt creeps in, I try to picture my mom and think, \u201cWhat would she do? She wouldn\u2019t be bothered by this. She would stand her ground and be who she is, regardless of what anyone says.”‘<\/p>\n
The young adult hopes to memorialize her mother in other ways, too, through a dream totally separate from but just as important as her acting goals: She wants to do some type of charitable work helping others with chronic illnesses.<\/p>\n
‘Once my court is wrapped up and once I\u2019m situated, I would love to start putting in some plans to make this happen.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
She believes here mother ‘would be on board’ fully with those charitable efforts, which ‘would be so important to her emotionally’ given the trauma that devastated the Kowalskis.<\/p>\n
Maya says she’ll ‘do my best to live up to that\u2019 passion and devotion so strongly exhibited by her mother.<\/p>\n
![\"Maya](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97276437-14555877-Maya_says_she_ll_do_my_best_to_live_up_to_that_passion_and_devot-a-8_1744979213678.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Maya says she’ll ‘do my best to live up to that\u2019 passion and devotion so strongly exhibited by her mother, almost a decade after her life was upended\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the teen remains, remarkably, philosophical.<\/p>\n
\u2018Sometimes bad things need to happen for progress to be made,\u2019 she tells the Daily Mail. \u2018And I look at my situation, and if I was the person that had to go through all this bad stuff, so be it.\u2019<\/p>\n
Maya says that while she largely doesn’t pay attention to social media comments, she sometimes takes a peek.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And when she sees social workers, nurses, doctors or anyone in the medical field leaving positive words, it’s gratifying.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve been told that my documentary is used to educate medical professionals, and I can\u2019t even begin to express how happy that makes me.<\/p>\n
\u2018This really negative thing happened, sure \u2013 but the people who need to hear it most\u2026 they\u2019re learning from it,’ she says. ‘Maybe [it] won\u2019t happen to other people. So that\u2019s a fulfilling thing for me.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maya Kowalski, 19, has been labelling and stacking neatly packed boxes next to the desk where she keeps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[92,577,105,451,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-37599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-netflix","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114374494658963476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Maya](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/97276429-14555877-image-a-1_1744661766621.jpg\")
<\/p>\n