Kriti Mehrotra
Although it was in 2015 when then 9-year-old Maya Kowalski first fell ill with a myriad of seemingly unrelated symptoms, everything turned upside down for her family a little over a year later. That’s because, as carefully explored in ‘Take Care of Maya,’ a flare-up in her diagnosed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) led to a hospital visit and later allegations of child abuse. So now, if you simply wish to learn more about the accused — her loving mother, Beata Zurawski Kowalski — with a specific focus on her ultimate fate, we’ve got the necessary details for you.
How Did Beata Kowalski Die?
It was reportedly back in the tail end of 1980s when 16-year-old Beata arrived in the United States of America from communist Poland alongside her family in search of better opportunities. She thus didn’t waste any time before enrolling in a local high school, improving her command of English, and then pursuing a career in the medical industry as a college-graduate registered nurse. This is actually around the time she came across Jack Kowalski for the first time, only for them to quickly fall head over heels in love and eventually tie the knot in a beautifully intimate ceremony.
Beata and Jack then happily welcomed two children into this world; a daughter they named Maya in 2006, followed by a son Kyle two years later, making their family complete in every sense. The fact they soon relocated from Illinois to Florida for good further brought them joy, especially as they managed to build a home in a “beautiful house” in a “beautiful neighborhood.” But alas, everything began shattering apart from 2015 onwards, when the couple’s eldest child got sick with asthma attacks, severe headaches, lesions on each of her limbs, as well as much more.
It took a little while, yet Maya was ultimately formally diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) thanks to her registered nurse mother Beata’s knowledge and unfaltering research. Yet no one could’ve ever expected this passion of hers would be taken wrongly in 2016 once she told doctors her little girl needed ketamine to manage her ailment, resulting in suspicions of abuse. This simple event then snowballed into several legal issues, breaking the 43-year-old to such an extent she deemed hanging herself in the family’s garage on January 8, 2017, to be the best out.
Beata Kowalski’s Suicide: Overwhelmed by Daughter’s Suffering
Maya was actually rushed into the emergency room of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, with crippling stomach pain from her advanced CRPS on October 7, 2016. Therefore, both her parents did their best to explain this complex, rare condition to the pediatrics on call before Beata essentially insisted the 10-year-old be administered a high dose of ketamine. This understandably raised a few concerns among the professionals since the drug is primarily an anesthetic, but one staff member got so worried over Maya’s health they contacted social services.
That’s when a Child Abuse Investigator took over the matter and analyzed the whole situation through (allegedly) brief interviews prior to outrightly accusing Beata of severe abuse within days. According to their preliminary report, she likely had Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP), a disorder wherein a caretaker either makes up symptoms or causes real ones to make their ward seem ill. This record hence essentially asserted the registered nurse was not mentally fit and had lied about Maya’s entire condition, which a psychological evaluation proved wasn’t the case in the ensuing week.
However, by this point, a district court had already ordered Maya to remain admitted in the hospital under state custody so as to explore other treatments as well as keep away from her parents. Though the worst part for them was that neither Beata nor Jack was initially even given visitation rights — the latter was soon allowed to see his daughter, yet the former could just speak to her on call. The mother of two was thus obviously devastated, driving her to break apart once a judge went as far as to deny her permission to give her declining 10-year-old a simple hug following 87 days apart.
“Please take care of Maya and tell her how much I love her every day,” Beata had penned in a drafted email to her family, discovered following her suicide. “… Please tell Kyle also that I love him very much, and I hope he grows up to be a strong good man, has a great future, and stays close to God… I’m sorry, 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.”
Read More: Maya Kowalski: Where is the Take Care of Maya Subject Now?
