Take Care of Maya (2023) Movie Review
Netflix is once again provoking our emotions and hearts to watch the new documentary Take Care of Maya from director Henry Roosevelt. Released on June 19, 2023, this film has attracted a lot of attention and has received a fairly high rating on IMDC 8.2/10.
The documentary Take Care of Maya is 1 hour and 43 minutes long, looking from the point of view of the Kowalski family and their daughter Maya. Check out the following review of Take Care of Maya, a heartbreaking documentary from Netflix in the middle of 2023.
Contents
Take Care of Maya (2023) Synopsis
Maya Kowalski, a 10-year-old girl, has to struggle with a rare disease, which even elite hospitals in America cannot treat.
Set in 2016, this film begins with husband and wife Jack Kowalski and Beata Kowalski who want their child to recover, and have to take Maya from one hospital to another, to find out about her child’s illness.
However, it violates regulations regarding the treatment of minors. They were accused of medical exploitation of Maya Kowalski, her 10 year old child. This is reinforced by Maya’s medical track record, which has changed doctors more than 5 times.
Take Care of Maya (2023) Movie Review
Maya’s initial diagnosis
Like most parents, they definitely want their children to recover quickly from their illness. However, Maya’s disease is relatively rare. Finally Maya was diagnosed by a Mexican doctor with CRPS (Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome).
Maya continues to experience pain in certain parts, even in her worst condition at the age of 10, she is paralyzed, because several parts of her body are difficult to move due to pain.
Changing hospitals and doctors, Maya finally found Dr. Anthony Kirkpatrick who can treat it with Ketamine therapy. A new diagnosis and hope for Maya’s recovery, a relief for her people.
Ketamine is a cure?
Dr. Therapy Anthony Kirkpatrick was initially doubted because he used Ketamine. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anesthesia.
This drug is also used as a treatment for depression, a pain management tool, and as a recreational drug. Many prohibit excessive use, especially against children.
Drugs for anesthesia and pain relief are given in high doses to Maya. After Beata, her mother, learned about Maya’s way of not getting sick, she always gave Ketamine therapy, even though there were many restrictions on its use outside the hospital.
Protective parents trigger the case
Jack and Beata Kowalski are parents who want the best for their children. Even Jack retired early, to be closer to his two children. Beata is also a nurse, so she knows medical problems and how to handle them.
Maya’s rare disease, makes Beata more active in finding out the cause and how to cure it. Maya even recovered before relapse and was taken to Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital.
This is where the cases of children and parents begin. It turns out that taking children to more than 5 different doctors and hospitals is an exploitation of child health. The written rules made the RS take over.
Maya is finally in the care of the medical team at Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital. And Maya was forbidden to meet her parents. Beata’s mother did not accept this.
Beata, who loves her child very much, wants her child not to be sick and always under her supervision. This made the Hospital add new suspicions to Beata’s mental health.
The case was even more complicated because Beata did not want to cooperate with the hospital, while Jack, his father, was so resigned to his father’s return home.
Cases are getting worse
Maya was only accompanied by Cathy Bedy from the hospital, acting as an intermediary for mother and child, even on the telephone line. Maya is also in the care of Dr. Sally Smith separated the protective Beata from Maya who had to be hospitalized.
After 6 months of not seeing each other, Beata ended her life by hanging herself. Who is to blame? Parents asking their children? Or strict hospital rules?
It turned out that Cathy had been indicted in a child abuse case, and Dr. Sally once separated many protective parents from their children. It just opened around 2019 3 years after Beata’s death. A case that is still ongoing until September 2023, the Kowalski family demands the real truth
Take Care of Maya (2023) Conclusion
The heartbreaking story of the Kowalski family with a rare disease Maya, made many families open their eyes. Like having fallen down a ladder, Maya had to spend her childhood in the hospital and lost her mother, who only wanted to take care of her.
