Take Care of Maya is the heartbreaking Netflix doc about a family torn apart by illness

This week, Netflix has released a new documentary film, titled Take Care of Maya. It tells the gut-wrenching story of the Kowalski family, who were torn apart after finding out their daughter Maya suffered from a rare illness.

The documentary focuses on telling the story of Maya Kowalski, her mother Beata and all the accusations the family faced when Maya was admitted to a children’s hospital in 2016. The family faced questioning, and Maya’s mother was accused of making her daughter’s illness up, which ended in tragedy.

via Netflix

Take Care of Maya tells the story of the Kowalski family

When Maya was just nine, she began suffering from severe pain in all her body, headaches, asthma attacks, lesions on her arms and legs and severe cramping in her feet. A year later, Maya’s symptoms relapsed during a hurricane, and she was in severe pain and admitted to hospital.

When 10-year-old Maya Kowalski was admitted to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in 2016, nothing could have prepared her or her family for what they were about to go through. As the medical team tried to understand her rare illness, they began to question the basic truths that bound the Kowalskis together.

via Netflix

Her mother said she had Complex Regional Pain Syndrome – known as CRPS – and had been using ketamine to relieve pain. Doctors called Beata “pushy” and didn’t believe her diagnosis, or why she would request such pain relief for her daughter.

Suddenly, Maya was in state custody – despite two parents who were desperate to bring their daughter home. Doctors suspected Beata Kowalski had the psychological condition Munchausen syndrome by proxy – and she was making the illness up. Hospital staff became more and more suspicious, and stopped Beata, and the Kowalski family, from seeing Maya for months.

After 87 days away from her daughter, Beata ended her life, saying in an email to family she couldn’t watch Maya suffer anymore. Just five days later, Maya was released from state custody hospital.

The story of the Kowalski family is told in their own words and through testimony from the doctors and those closest to the case, in Take Care of Maya on Netflix.

Watch the trailer for Take Care of Maya on Netflix here:

Take Care of Maya is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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