Revisiting Kowalski Part One: The Turn

Nobody Should Believe Me

True Story Media

Society & Culture, True Crime, Personal Journals

4.2 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Andrea has been following the Kowalski v Johns Hopkins All Children's case since it first received national attention, and previously covered it in depth in our third season. Within this 4-part series, we’re revisiting the case with the benefit of additional trial testimony, released records, and appellate developments. In this first part, we’re going back to 2015 to revisit the events that set this case in motion. We’re sharing this recap now because the Kowalski case is directly relevant to themes we’ll be exploring in season 7 of Nobody Should Believe Me. The public conversation around this case—shaped by courtroom proceedings, media coverage, and documentary storytelling—has had broader implications for how medical child abuse allegations are understood and debated. *** Try out Andrea’s Podcaster Coaching App: https://studio.com/apps/andrea/podcaster Order Andrea’s book The Mother Next Door: Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy. Click here to view our sponsors. Remember that using our codes helps advertisers know you’re listening and helps us keep making the show! Subscribe on YouTube where we have full episodes and lots of bonus content. Follow Andrea on Instagram: @andreadunlop Buy Andrea's books here. For more information and resources on Munchausen by Proxy, please visit MunchausenSupport.com The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children’s MBP Practice Guidelines can be downloaded here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	True Story Media.
0:05.0	Profiled in the Netflix documentary, Take Care of Maya.
0:13.0	So the Kowalski family is suing, of course, Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital for $220 million.
0:19.0	Maya's mother died by suicide after the hospital filed child abuse allegation.
0:23.6	This documentary was so disturbing to watch.
0:26.6	We now know that Maya's family is suing the hospital for over $200 million in damages.
0:32.6	Sarasota doctor who first diagnosed Maya said her complex regional pain syndrome
0:36.6	brings on excruciating pain,
0:38.6	as does the stress. And patient complaints often fall on deaf ears.
0:42.7	The hospital still owes the Kowalski family quite a large sum of money in his decision.
0:48.1	The judge said the jury didn't go off the rails despite lowering that dollar amount.
0:52.9	I've been following the Maya Kowalski story since it first broke wide in 2022.
0:58.4	That was after Diane Neary wrote her piece about it for New York Magazine.
1:02.4	This story was presented as a kind of true crime fairy tale.
1:06.4	A beautiful young girl is struck down with a mysterious illness.
1:10.2	Her devoted mother goes on a medical
1:12.2	odyssey trying to help her. But then, in a horrible twist, an evil group of doctors kidnapped the
1:18.2	young girl and the mother winds up dead. This is more or less the version that made it to the big
1:23.4	screen, or the biggest of small screens, in Netflix's take care of Maya.
1:27.6	I had a beautiful family, but then Maya started to get sick.
1:34.8	Maya had advanced complex regional pain syndrome, and we know what the best therapy is for it.
1:40.1	It's called ketamine.
	...

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