SARASOTA, Fla. — A medical treatment approved but rarely used to treat pain was under scrutiny on Tuesday as part of a $220 million case against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.
The Kowalski family's case featured in the Netflix documentary "Take Care of Maya" is in its fourth week in court.
On Tuesday, medical experts defended the use of ketamine to treat Maya Kowalski.
All eyes were set in the courtroom on Tampa doctor Anthony Kirkpatrick who took the stand.
He was the medical official who prescribed the controversial ketamine treatments for Maya Kowalski and also the first to diagnose the then-10-year-old with complex regional pain syndrome.
Kirkpatrick testified how ketamine treatments work for patients like Maya Kowalski.
"The pain is coming from within the nerves itself, as opposed to the kind of pain you get when you injure yourself," he said. "It was a low-dose conscious sedation but they are talking to you. It is called conscious sedation, the higher you get the dose, the longer the response, the more vigorous the response, but there is a limit to how far you can go."
Kirkpatrick said he met the family when the Kowalskis were searching for another opinion on her medical condition and thought that there was something desperately wrong with Maya.
The Tampa doctor testified that Maya's mother, Beata Kowalski, wanted to know all the details regarding her daughter's health. However, hospital staff have accused Beata of doctor shopping and medical child abuse.
The Kowalski family's lawsuit alleges medical malpractice and false imprisonment, including blaming the hospital for Beata's suicide.
Attorneys for the St. Pete-based hospital said the medical team was following orders from the Department of Children and Families by sheltering Maya Kowalski for 87 days and acting in the interest of the child over the use of ketamine.