A survivor's perspective: unabridged interview with Jordyn Hope
01:13:38 Share

Hello, it's Andrea. Happy holidays. We are taking a little bit of a break today, but we have a wonderful bonus episode for you. This is my unabridged interview with survivor Jordan Hope that we did earlier this season. So please enjoy this episode and we will be back next week with the first episode of our three-part season finale featuring my interview with Dr. Sally Smith.

Making everyone happy on vacation isn't easy, but you know what is? Going to Aruba. All you have to do is walk out your door to find pristine pools, relaxing white sand beaches, and an island teeming with outdoor activities that'll put a smile on any face. You won't just feel great, you'll all feel great, filled with a calmer, more peaceful vibe that radiates Aruba's warmth. And the best part is, it never fades. That's the Aruba effect. Plan your family trip at aruba.com.

This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use, but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. Hi, Jo. Hi.

Hello. Thank you for being with us. You are a regular guest and friend of the show and real life friend as well. So we're very happy to have you here. Can you start off just refreshing us on who you are and how you come to this issue? Just a sort of quick cliff notes version of your story.

Yeah, so my name is Jordan Hope, but I also go by Jo, and I am a survivor of Munchausen by proxy, and I also now do a lot in the field working with other survivors and other people impacted by Munchausen. And tell us just a little bit about how you came to understand what had happened to you throughout the course of your childhood.

So growing up, I had no idea anything about Munchausen by proxy. I thought I was sick my entire life. I thought I had rare blood diseases and asthma and a bunch of other ailments. And it wasn't until I was

I believe 22 or 23. And I was in a abnormal psychology class for school. And our professors started talking about what Munchausen and Munchausen by proxy were. And suddenly I was flooded with a bunch of memories and a bunch of pieces just kind of clicked together. And I got my medical records sent to me. And there had been reports made specifically about Munchausen by proxy and page after page.

of my medical records very blatantly showed the abuse that I had gone through. Yeah. And as you mentioned, you do a lot of work with survivors in our peer support groups and as an individual counselor now. So in your experience, hearing from those folks,

do most people have a similar experience where they realize sometime in adulthood that they were victimized or do they have a sense of it when they are actually kids in the house? Absolutely not. Usually, I think, I mean, there's a lot to be said about when you're a kid, you couldn't really have these realizations because you have to believe that you're safe in the home that you're in, regardless of the abuse that is going on. And also,

You don't know it's not normal until you know it's not normal. So a lot of survivors I talked to, I mean, some people find out in their 20s, 30s, 40s or later. And it's really sad to see. But a lot of people, there's been people who have had very similar situations where they were in a class in school for psychology. And that's when they first even heard the term and things started to click. So a lot of similarities for people with that.

You at this point are years out from that initial revelation and you are still trying to make sense of your health and what is real. Is that right? Yeah.

Yeah, I just a few months ago found out that I never had asthma. And that still is a hard thing to be working through. I still have asthmatic like symptoms that come up and that I have to kind of find new ways to work through and deal with. But there's a lot of different things. I mean, just yesterday, I learned that something that I like, thought was like going on with my body, like

that I had thought was just like a normal thing is actually probably related to this like vocal cord dysfunction that was caused by my mother's abuse. And so it's like all these back and forths of still...

Trying to learn some things that aren't real and that were just abuse. Some things that I thought were normal and are actually parts of different struggles and chronic illnesses now that I do have and trying to figure out like where the where they all come from.

So one of the things that comes up a lot in this case is the psychological components of pain. And we're going to unpack a little bit of that a little bit later, but it's

And saying that something has a psychological component doesn't mean it's not real or that you're not feeling it. And so what were like now looking back, knowing that you do not have a diagnosis of asthma, which your mother, in my recollection, represented to you that you had not just asthma, but like severe life-threatening asthma. Absolutely. Yeah, it was severe asthma. I couldn't run more than a few blocks without ending up in the emergency room.

I was on steroids and nebulizers and things like that to try to manage my

And so now sort of looking back, knowing that underlying diagnosis was not actually real. I mean, how do you look back on those incidents where you were having a quote asthma attack or where you were having an incident and you were brought into the ER? And I mean, what what sort of like and I imagine that that is really sort of a complicated thing to look back on some of those memories. Yeah.

Yeah, what do you kind of make of what was maybe going on with you that convinced you at the time that you were having really these symptoms? Because you were not sort of, you weren't quote, faking symptoms. You were having it, but it's sort of more psychologically complex than that. Yeah, so I...

It's interesting, like looking back at it, because I mean, the doctors, you know, I had a, like a whole chart of, these are the things to do when you're in this zone or when you're in this zone. Like I had an asthma plan that the school had and things like that, that I was supposedly supposed to follow. So looking back at that, it's always interesting. But I think

When I look back, I think it was just anxiety. I think I was having like panic attacks or anxiety attacks. And that combined with vocal cord dysfunction, a lot of times vocal cord dysfunction can be misinterpreted as asthma. And there are like some differences. Like, for instance, my issue has always been breathing issues.

And I guess with asthma, oftentimes it's breathing out. That's the problem, which I didn't know until very recently. And the vocal cord dysfunction, that can be caused by things like acid reflux, which was caused by the induced vomiting that was going on in infancy. So it makes sense when...

where it would have all come from and where even doctors would have been confused by some of the symptoms. But when I would go to the doctor, to the ER specifically, they would often put in my notes or tell my mom that I wasn't having an asthma attack and that it was anxiety. And then she, of course, would make a really big deal out of it and would tell me about it. And then I would think,

oh my gosh, they don't believe me, but I couldn't breathe. Like I clearly wasn't okay. And so then people constantly trying to tell me that I was like faking asthma when I really couldn't breathe and was really having struggles. I would sometimes say,

fake symptoms in a way like I would have more anxiety and I would end up having more breathing struggles because I wanted people to just be able to help me because I didn't know what was going on. Yeah. And that's that's such a hard position to be in as a kid. And do you remember what, you know, in those instances where doctors and medical professionals were pushing back on your mom? Yeah.

Do you remember what her reactions were and sort of what the story she told you about those interactions? Like what was the kind of narrative around those doctors pushing back?

So I remember like very vividly I was in it was either fourth or fifth grade and we had run the half mile and I had what I thought was an asthma attack. And I went to the nurse and I remember like the nurse bringing in the guidance counselor and like the vice principal and the principal. And I was laying in a bed breathing through a paper bag and they were all just standing around me and they asked.

called my mom instead of an ambulance, which at the time, of course, I didn't really understand. I thought I was dying. I thought they were standing around me as I was like taking my last breath. My mom finally got there. And I remember when I got in the car, I was able to breathe. I suddenly was not having breathing issues at all.

And I tried to tell my mom and my mom was like, no, you're going to die. We have to bring you to the ER. You can't breathe. You're going to die. She brought me to the ER. That's when they were like, no, this isn't an asthma attack. This is just anxiety and hyperventilating. And my mom just like yelled at them and told them like, how dare you say these things? And eventually they did give me

a shot to help with the supposed asthma attack. And I calmed down and we were able to go home. And then my mom, I remember just going off about how like,

I could have died and how dare they say I didn't have asthma when I clearly like was having an asthma attack and just all these things. And I remember later on, like I would go to school and I would tell everyone like this doctor that I had when I was in elementary school, like he tried to say, I don't have asthma, but like, I clearly do. I can't even run. And I just, yeah, I really bought into the story and believes that that's what was going on. Yeah. So it sounds like there was a lot of

making doctors that disagreed with her the villains. Absolutely. Yeah, she would really go after any doctor that tried to say that I wasn't experiencing whatever ailment or illness she wanted me to have at that time. And I imagine for you, that made you pretty wary of doctors and medical professionals.

Absolutely. I, yeah, I never really trusted doctors. It was kind of this weird thing, though, where on one hand, I was terrified of hospitals and hated doctors. I guess I wasn't so afraid of hospitals, but I didn't trust doctors because I didn't think that they ever listened to what I was saying or what was going on. And I felt like I always had to prove that I was sick.

But then at the same time, there was like a comfort with being in the hospital and having that attention and care and safety. And I wonder if you think, and obviously I'm not trying to put words in your mouth here, but I wonder if like part of that comfort you felt in a hospital setting, was that because like how was your mom different then?

when you were in the hospital than when you were out of the hospital. Like, I just wonder about sort of how, because one thing that I noticed as a parent is that, you know, and my kids are little, but, and obviously for you, this goes back to the time that you were really little and the time that you were a baby, but

You know, I noticed that like whatever mood I'm in, like really affects them. Like they are so sort of attuned to like if my husband or I, especially me, you know, is more grumpy, if we're sad, it's like they will sort of, you know, be more calm. If I'm calm, they act out when I'm, you know, grumpy and snappy and that kind of thing. So I wonder if like was part of it that, that your mom was different when you were in the hospital than when you were at home? Yeah.

Yes, I think there's a couple of things. I think one, that that's like a really big thing. I think at home, the memories that I have of mom are, she was like very distant or very much like on top of me. Like there was really no in between. It was always either...

just straight neglect or like she would be passed out on the couch holding me down and I wouldn't be able to move. So there was like two sides of it and it was always...

when mom wants to pay attention. If I like, I jammed my thumb in fourth grade. And when I tried telling her like, she didn't have time for it, it wasn't going to get her attention in that moment. And she was on the phone with a friend or something like that. And so it was just like, wash it off and like, stop crying. And I like really needed her in that moment. So it was always but then like a lot of times I would want to be playing or doing something. But then

she would be telling me that I was sick or had a concussion or had something wrong and needed like that attention. And so I think in the hospital, one, she still was very hovery and was very like right there in everything speaking for me and all of that, but was nicer seeming. She seemed to be kinder towards me.

And I think at the same time, the hospital safety was like the one time that she couldn't be harming me and that I would kind of have

space from her in some respect because I would be with the doctors or things like that. I would have food. I would have, you know, all those different needs taken care of. Because you were in a position where you were isolated with your mom a lot. And so maybe it was sort of that security of having other adults around. That's really interesting.

So, yeah, that's something that comes up a lot in this case is the conversations that, you know, Beata Kowalski was having with providers in front of her daughter, presumably with her daughter also behind the scenes, you know, about this.

It's being a terminal illness about hospital care, about about death, about the sort of the looming specter of death. And I wonder, you know, you mentioned that also. And how did that like was that something that your mom seemed pretty fixated on? And how did that affect you? Yeah.

I definitely, I can't remember like specific times minus the asthma situations where she would say that I was dying, but it was like a very big message. I mean, I thought that I would die in my childhood. You know, I did got to do pageant when I was four because I was like the sick kid in town or things like that. And I definitely never thought that I would die.

survive. I've always been very afraid of dying and very afraid of death. So when mom would say that I had a concussion and that I had to stay home and that I couldn't move or these things because I could die, I would listen. Or when she said I couldn't sleep because I might die, I wouldn't sleep or things like that. So I very much, I guess there was a lot of messaging that maybe I just

have kind of pushed away a lot of that. But I mean, even as an adult, I still am working through my fears of death. That's always been like a very big thing. Either me dying or my mom dying was always a really big thing too. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So just to kind of switch gears, thank you for sharing all of that with us. So one of the things we're really talking about this season is this

expanding media narrative that is really on a roll at the moment that there is a rampant over-diagnosis of medical child abuse, that parents of legitimately fragile children who are not abusing their children are being accused and separated from their children just, you know, in these huge numbers, right? And

I wonder, both as a survivor and as a person who is working in the field, who, honestly, you have probably talked to more survivors than anyone else in the professional sphere. I mean, something both you and I know from our work with the APSAC.

committee of which I'm a member and you are going to be a member soon, you know, is that people have not studied survivors. And that's not because those professionals don't care. It's because there's just been a limited amount of sort of resources devoted to this. But we are, you know, you and me and Be Yorker, you in particular are really on the forefront of talking to so many survivors and you sort of have

information and data at that at this point is new that nobody has collected before and so I wonder what you have to say about that narrative of these false accusations are happening all the time

Yeah, if that were the case, I think that most survivors would have gotten out of their homes much sooner. Most survivors wouldn't have siblings that have died at the hands of their abuser. There wouldn't. Yeah, I wouldn't have been stuck in my home if there was this over reporting that was happening, because even when there's a lot of evidence to prove

it being clear abuse, most kids aren't able to get out of the house even with that. So that's very much, I mean, my situation, right? There were reports made. It was very evident page after page of documentation, very clearly stated I was a healthy child who just needed time away from my parents and things like that. And yet I was stuck in that home. And so if over-reporting of this happened,

I wouldn't have been stuck in the home for so long. So it just doesn't really make sense. I mean, I am the first to say that there are issues with the medical system and that there are issues. You know, I'm in school to be a social worker and there's a lot of issues within the social work profession. I see that all the time. I'm very aware of that. And a lot of what is happening now after this movie came out there,

There's just no, it doesn't make any sense what people are trying to claim. It doesn't match with what's actually going on. Yeah. And to the point about the issues with, which we are going to, you know, do a little more unpacking of that this season, because this is something that I'm very curious about as well. You know, there are these huge issues with DCF and specifically with family separation. But I think from what I've seen, and I wonder if this is true for you as well, is

You know, first of all, 75% of family separations that happen in this country are not related to abuse. They are, you know, sort of these neglect cases

allegations that are or neglect issues that are related to poverty and substance abuse right and so very much in my estimation and I think a lot of people's you know situations where if the family was given more resources those problems would go away and it is not a problem of an abusive parent it's a problem of a parent who is struggling in some way and so you know

In terms of, I think what is really sort of coalesced for me is that the people who are coming out and calling themselves, not every single one of them, but like many of these people who are calling themselves victims of the system are

are not victims of the system and they are taking up space that doesn't belong to them because there are a lot of victims of the system. And it's not related to medical abuse over diagnosis. And so I think it's like, it's offensive on sort of these two levels, right? Like number one, that I don't think it's happening and I don't think that it's, I think it's making children less safe by saying that it's happening and it's making parents scared and all of that. But it's also taking, you know,

you know, resources and it's taking air out of the room from people, you know, who have lost their kids because they were born with, you know, marijuana in their system or because a social worker came to their house and they didn't have enough bedrooms for however many kids they had in the house and like stuff like that, where those problems are comparatively so fixable and

And compared to this, right, which you have to have so, I mean, both you and I know just from having talked to all these people, like you have to have so much evidence to get anything done. And in that case, it's usually, you know, we know of situations where, you know, maybe the abuser was separated for a couple of years and then they got their kids back and they had another kid. And I mean, it's not like it's not. I just don't. We I don't think either of us. I mean, have you seen any evidence that that is true?

Like, we are going to talk to someone who was legitimately falsely accused this season. And I think it'll be really interesting to sort of compare and contrast. But, I mean, have you...

Like, do you see any evidence of this happening? No, I think everything you're saying is so beautifully put. In one of my social work classes right now, we're talking about this exact issue with how oftentimes neglect is seen as child abuse when it's really just a lack of resources and accessibility and obviously capitalism and things like that. Oppression. But

It's neglect. We you don't really see it as much like you're saying with medical child abuse, which isn't to say that it never happens. As you're saying, you're going to speak to somebody who was falsely accused there. But that's like how it always is. Right. Like with sexual assault cases, it's it's like.

So many times people are like, oh, it's over. People are just saying this. It's over said when really it's like so underreported. And like, sure, there are false allegations made on probably everything and anything that you can think of. But if you look at the bigger picture and like look at what's really going on, like is way underreported. And even when it is reported, like

Most of the time, it doesn't even get past the initial reporting phone call because nobody still most people don't know what medical child abuse is and don't want to touch it with a 10 foot pole for so many reasons. Because they might end up as the villains of a Netflix film, for instance. So what were your initial impressions of.

We watched the Netflix documentary Take Care of Maya as a teen. What were your initial impressions upon watching this film? Yes. I know we spoke in the roundtable discussion about this too. And like I said on there, when I watched the film, I didn't know much at all going into it. I obviously hadn't read any of the things that I've read now or talked with.

Any of you guys about all the other stuff going on behind the scenes. So I just watched the documentary and I.

felt so many emotions, especially for Maya, and related to so many of the different things that she spoke to and felt I felt angry at the doctors and the social worker, and all these different people. There's different parts of it that I could very much relate to as a kid that was being abused and had just doctors do inappropriate things. And as a

an adult who does have some like chronic health issues and just how the medical system looks to me. So there was like a lot of

I like, yeah, really felt like I could relate and felt really angry about a lot of things. And it wasn't until later realizing like how one sided the documentary was and realizing that like I had been tricked. Like I fell right into everything that they wanted me to fall into because of the different ways that I could relate. And it's hard.

When you see those things, it can be hard. Like it feels so validating and it's hard to see, oh, there's a whole other side to this or there's all these other things that could be going on.

Yeah, I mean, I agree with you that I think in terms of it being an emotionally effective film, I think it did its job clearly, you know, and they they pointed you to the it's sort of like, look at the thing we want you to look at. And, you know, there was a lot of like dramatic music and they played the 911 call and they, you know, showed all these pictures of them as a family. And I mean, it's really like it tugged on the heartstrings that you wanted it to tug on.

And so, yeah, I think that that's that is how it how it struck me as well. So that is what watching this film is what started us all on this journey that we're now on through the thousands of pages, thousands and thousands of pages of court depositions, et cetera, that have been done on this case. And you have read this.

Maya's depositions. And I wonder what you think about what she has to say. And if you could just describe kind of what

So there's, I think, three different depositions, but they were all sort of, I think they kept getting interrupted because she got really upset. And obviously, I mean, this is like, I have thought so many times about just sort of the ethics of putting a traumatized kid through all of this. It just seems really cruel. But nonetheless, what did you, like, what did she have to say in her depositions? And what, you know, what was your like sort of interpretation? Because I am very interested in what you said about you could sort of put yourself in,

back in that kid version of seeing doctors that are disagreeing with your mom as the enemy and, you know, and all of that and really just relating to like a lot of the experience even that the film showed you through that certain lens. So I wonder what your thoughts were reading her, what she had to say. Yeah, it was definitely hard to read through some of it. It was hard to see, like you're saying, the ethics of it. Like I...

My heart like literally just goes out to her. I think after I read it that night, I had a dream that I like met her in person and I was like talking to her and I was just telling her that I was like so sorry and that I just wish that she could be

be a kid and was trying to, yeah, like comfort her. It was a very, very vivid dream. But because it's just so sad. I mean, I think it's in her affidavit where she says, like, I'm 14, but I'm really mature for my age. And like, I know how court proceedings and all this stuff go. And it's like, she's trying to prove that she knows a lot. And like, my heart is just

breaking because I'm like, no, be a kid. Like, go, like, go have fun. Like, I get you have been through a lot. Like, she's been through so much. And she's just still getting everything taken away from her and like so many opportunities to just be a young child adult in the world. So that, first of all, that like really affected me a lot because

I mean, I went through, I would say similar things just with not ever getting to have those opportunities because I was always having to try to prove that I had been through something or that I wasn't okay or that I was sick or all of that. And it took so many years away from me. I mean, I would say literally until last year, like a year and a half ago, I would say, I just didn't get to have any experiences of just

Being okay enough in the world and having a different identity. So that was really hard. Reading and seeing like how intense that they were going at her. It seemed like a lot of what they were going at was like, oh, you were faking or like, oh, you couldn't have had these issues. And this is sorry, this is when the defense is real.

Yeah. Doing the questioning. And I don't know if it's technically called cross-examination when it's a deposition. I'd have to check with Jonathan. But like, so this is when, and I'm trying to remember, I think it was Hughes who did the questioning during the deposition. But yeah, that was, yeah. So when the Johns Hopkins team or when the defense was questioning her, is that what you're talking about? Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Thanks. That was really hard to read because I...

I would have responded in such similar ways to her. Like I, one, I didn't realize that I was a victim of Munchausen by proxy until I was in my twenties. But two, like if any, whenever people came at me trying to say that I had faked anything, I would get so defensive because I,

Like I just I still needed help. I was still hurting and I still did have struggles. I didn't know like I wasn't trying to manipulate anybody. And I really did think I had those issues. So seeing I really felt for her and how she was responding because I like I said, would have responded the exact same way. And.

And regardless of what like physical things are going on, psychosomatic things are going on, whatever it may be, there was like so clear medical abuse that was happening. And that's, I mean, right in the records and like very evident by how she responded since that situation and all of that. So it's just really, yeah, it's really painful to see how much she still feels she has to prove herself.

how sick she is and was and how just like the wording she would use. And one of them, she like talked about how, not sure if this was the affidavit or the deposition, but she talked about how she, if she hadn't received the ketamine, like she would have died within the month. And that's like so sad to me because

once again, there's like a lot of evidence contrary to that statement. And just that plus all of the comments of being held captive or her captors and how the wording that she uses, like does not seem like wording that a child or a teenager would be using. And so it felt reading it, it felt like very much like brainwashing or a lot of things being like told to

to her. And of course, you take in those stories. I mean, like I said, I thought certain doctors were evil and bad and out to get me and just people in general, I thought were out to get me and trying to kill me my whole life, you know, so it's like, as a kid, and as a teen, you believe what you're told. And it becomes your reality becomes the way that you see the world.

Yeah, I mean, and I think that happens in abusive situations in a particularly intense way, but it happens in non-abusive situations. Like, listen, I went off to my liberal arts college believing that trickle-down economics were real. And, you know, that's just something I absorbed in my household. You know, we all get our ideas from, that's where we get most of our ideas when we're growing up, right? And then we go in the world and we figure out.

What we really think about things. And yeah, I mean, that all struck me to the language and just like I, you know, it has occurred to me readings through this documentation and also certainly watching, you know, we've been trying to watch as much of the trial as we can and watching this play out. Like what an impossible situation she is being put in because regardless of what

was going on with her health, regardless of the veracity of this diagnosis of CRPS, whatever it is, what you want any child to do is embrace

their health, embrace their idea of themselves as someone who is capable, embrace their feeling that they have a bright future. And I really get the sense listening to this and especially listening to some of these doctors on this stand this week, you know, that what she is still being told is

really counter to that, right? And if, and that if she sort of really wholeheartedly embraces a bright future and good health that she, I fear, and this is just my, my take on it. I fear that that would feel like a betrayal of her mother and that she might be implicating her mother if she says that her health has been getting better over the last few years and

And also now she's being put in the position where that would be a betrayal of her remaining parent, her father, because his lawsuit with Johns Hopkins is very contingent on the fact that not only that she has this diagnosis and that it was so serious that they needed to give these life-threatening treatments to address it, but that also sort of that they didn't do anything wrong in those treatments. And so...

She's really like, I don't know what she could possibly do. I mean, she's just been painted into such a corner and it seems like such an unfair position to put a child into. And I think, you know, I see why the defense has to question her. And it was really painful because I don't, I'm like, I don't think, I think my reading of it was like, this child doesn't have any answers for you. Like this child is not going to be able to give you answers.

an objective sense of what happened to her. And that is not because I want to take her voice away or because I don't, you know, but I think like if you look at the situation, what is playing out, what is at stake for her family and like, especially in the wake of her mom's death, how could she have a sense, an objective sense of like reality? And also there's, you know, all kinds of things with transphobia.

with trauma and memories and the stories we hear afterwards that get woven into those. It just doesn't seem like a fair position to put her in. And yeah, I mean, my heart just like really breaks for her. And I think in some sense, she's right at the center of this. And in some sense, she's completely lost in it. Like her and her well-being has been completely lost. Yes. Yeah, I...

full heartedly agree with everything that you're saying. I know I've been talking a lot to my roommate about like, as I've been reading some of the different stuff and just, I mean, this whole process of everything happening in the world because of this has been just a lot to process. So I've processed a lot with my therapist and with my roommate. But as I like talk to my roommate, we just, we do, we keep coming back to like how

sad of a situation it is and how like unfair it is and it's none of it's her fault and her doing in any way shape or form and like it just sucks that like you said she's being put in the middle of it and there's uh there's just so many so many issues so many issues with it and obviously like my

My mom, I didn't get taken out of the home because of her, that munchausen by proxy, I got taken out because of her alcoholism. But even just like as I was an adult, I had to stay sick for a long time to meet financial needs, to meet basic housing needs and things like that. As I was homeless from age 16 to 18, like I...

had to be sick so that I could get help in different ways. And so it makes so much sense to me why like she would have to say like there is no other option for her given like everything that's going on in her environment. People are sort of making her this figurehead of like

falsely abused movement. And I just think that's, I think that's, that's so wrongheaded. And I just, yeah, I mean, I, I will say it more plainly than that. I mean, I feel like it's exploitative of her. And I, I really question how Jack Kowalski

could think that this is the best because this is drug on for six years now. And so like, you know, I, and who knows how it's going to sort of play out from here, but it just to, to make your, I mean, to sort of have her revisit this again and again. And I think like, you know, there were some questions, like one of the things that struck me in, and I don't know if this is a document piece of documentation that you read, but one of her, but I did want to ask you about it, just this piece of it. So Dr. Wassener, who was a general practitioner who saw both Beata and Maya Kowalski and

And he saw them for sort of a year and a half period of time, I think, because it was after they moved. He saw them five times, I think he had a total of five visits with Maya. And he's testified on behalf of the plaintiffs, so on behalf of the Kowalskis. And he said in his affidavit that he thought Maya, who was at the time nine years old,

thought that she was really quite independent and wouldn't be subject to pressure from her mom and that he thought she could sort of, I can't remember, I'm paraphrasing, but sort of like, oh, that she wouldn't be, this wasn't Munchausen by proxy abuse because she seemed like she could really speak for herself. I mean, what do you, how does that land for you?

I did not read that yet. But hearing that, I feel a lot of things. I...

was that kid. I was that kid that seemed very mature, that was very mature, that was very independent. That, yeah, was very, I mean, my sister is 12 years older than me. So I was always hanging out with her and her friends. I was always with people way older than me and always was able to like fit in and mask in whatever way. And at five,

15 years old, I had back surgery that I didn't need and I had rods and screws put in my back. So I think that doesn't really make any sense. You can be mature and you can, but first of all, usually a lot of times that maturity or that independence can come directly because of abuse or because of neglect or because of what it is that you're going through where you're not able to

express your needs or get help or be dependent because, you know. Right. Like kids can, kids who are in abuse situations can often, I think, seem, and this is something that's in the peer reviewed literature, not just your take on it, but that they can, it can sort of adultify them or parentify them in a way where they're being made to be the caretaker of their parents' emotional needs. And so it does make them seem more mature. And I, I,

I really, that comment in particular from Dr. Wassner's affidavit stuck with me because I was sort of saying, well, so like only weak children get abused? I mean, that just seemed, that seemed sort of horrifying to me. But so another thing that struck me in reading some of the questions that they asked Maya about in her deposition was this concept of beata abdication.

both a blog and emails. The emails really struck me that she would write, she had a blog that she wrote in Maya's voice. And, you know, part of the reason we know that that was her, I'm sure there's like forensic reasons, but just from us looking at these, you know, at the documents is that she was narrating Maya's experience in Maya's voice while she was in a coma. So obviously Maya was not writing this, but something else that came up during the deposition was that Maya

Beata would write emails and it was unclear to me who she was sending them to. I think Beata might have just been sending them to herself. So sort of like as a diary kind of. But she would send these emails that were in Maya's voice about Maya's health and her experiences. And that struck me as just fascinating.

The blog in her voice, having talked to some other parents who've like gone through cases where they had a, you know, medically fragile child, there's like a, there's sort of maybe an explanation for that. It's still a little strange given how old she was, but sort of like, you know, that, oh, we're trying to share information. We're keeping people updated. Like, okay, that,

I could sort of see an explanation for that. But the emails, I mean, and I wonder just like, how did that strike you? That seemed very, that seemed like a really strange dynamic that the two of them had in that sense. I mean, what did that, what was your take on that? Yeah, it definitely felt like a really big red flag to me and very like, yeah, very concerning. Because I think that, that to me was where I was like,

Oh, OK. I've been saying like, you know, we'll never know for sure if it was Munchausen by proxy or like what exactly was going on. Right. We'll never have these answers. And what I'm like reading through and like looking at things to me, it's like very evident that there was the medical child abuse.

But when I saw the emails and the blog posts or the Facebook posts or things like that, that's where my like red flags start going off for more of the Munchausen by proxy pathology and abuse in that way, just with all of that. And I mean, you know, thankfully, yeah.

computers weren't a big thing when I was really young. So my mom wasn't like online in that way, really. But I mean, some of the things that's like very similar, I feel like to how my mom would have like spoke or the fact that I got to be in pageant when I was four years old because I was like so sick or things like that. So I related in that way to that. But yeah, it was a very big red flag. Yeah. So...

To sort of, like, broaden our scope to this case, as I've been reading through these depositions from the doctors that have been hired as experts by the Kowalskis or are, you know, testifying on their behalf, and I don't say hiring in some suspicious way. Like, both sides pay experts for their time. That doesn't mean what they have to say isn't valid. That's just, like, what you do when you're in a court case. So, you know, reading through the experts on their side, so...

You know, we have, we mentioned Dr. Wassener, who's obviously speaking from his experiences with Maya. We, I believe Dr. Kirkpatrick is going to testify today. He is a real interesting character. Dr. Chopra, who did one evaluation with her later on, you know, after Beata's death, spoke on the stand. And I had this real growing suspicion that these doctors didn't believe that medical child abuse was a real phenomenon.

And that's confirmed by some of their own writings. And also, as I dug back into the court filings, there was actually a motion made by the Kowalski team called the Dobert Defense Commission.

If I'm not right about that, sorry, I am not actually a lawyer. I feel like one right now. But which basically the argument that they were making is that Munchausen by proxy is junk science. Right.

So basically, not only are they saying Beata didn't do this, they're saying Beata didn't do this because no one does this. Because this form of abuse isn't real. It's based on junk science. Now, just to clarify, it is not. It is based on a whole ton of like 40 plus years of peer reviewed science. So it is very much not junk science, which is why this petition was dismissed.

It strikes me that actually even in the absence of that filing, like that is sort of still the argument that they're making. And I wonder what you have to say to that. And also just like on an emotional level, like what does it feel like for you to hear something like that, to hear these people making that argument? Yeah.

Yeah, I like don't usually get emotional on podcasts or like in the work that I do. But this is what gets me every time. It's so fun.

ah, so many emotions. I feel so angry because one, obviously I'm a survivor. So to go out and have people that are now protesting and doing all these different things, trying to say that this doesn't exist, literally is like saying that I don't exist. I don't matter. And my life

does not matter. And I have fought for 28 years for my life. So I, I would say that I do matter and my life does matter. And that makes me angry. Also, I mean, pretty much everyone that I talked to that are survivors, we all have

so many similarities, the weirdest things in common, the like oddest characteristics that just seem to be case to case to case. Like everyone has so many similarities and you see perpetrators of this abuse having the same characteristics.

time and time again. So if it didn't exist, you just wouldn't think that there could be red flags or that there would be all these obvious signs and similarities when you've never talked to these people and suddenly you just keep hearing the same things over and over again. So just it's clear that these people are not talking to survivors and don't want to hear these things. I mean,

Yeah, I know that I oftentimes, I still, I mean, I work in the field and I'm a survivor and I work with survivors. And there's so many times that I will be like, is that, did I make this up? Like, is this real? Like this, it can't be real, right? Because it doesn't make sense. And in the support groups that I facilitate for survivors, pretty much every group at some point, I have to say like,

you guys, it won't make sense. Like we can't make sense of this because there's nothing to make sense of. Like, how do you make sense of your mother trying to kill you for attention for your whole life? Like there's just no, you're not going to get to an answer. And I think society as a whole, obviously isn't ready to hear that or to like work through that complex, um,

And so it's just like, yeah, even as a survivor, I question it or I don't want it to be real. I would much rather it be like, oh, no, I was actually sick and I miraculously got better. And like, I did need all these things. I would much rather that be the answer. And that'd be what I like have to heal from and work through is

actually being a sick kid versus the reality of like what happened. And it just feels, yeah, I get so emotional because it's like, I finally survived. I finally started to build a life. I'm finally doing these things. And to have so many people being like, no, no, none of it's real. It's all fake. It's not real. It feels like

a desperate attempt to like pull me back. It's so hard for me to not suddenly be back in the shoes of my childhood self that desperately wanted like this life and to feel dependent on having to prove myself again. Like I, you know, I am an adult. I have proven myself. I have a whole life outside of that now. And like I have security and safety and stability, but

As I keep hearing people doubt that this is real, it feels like I'm just a child having to prove myself again and nothing I will ever do because apparently my life isn't enough proof. So it feels like nothing I ever do will be enough to tell people that I am.

was hurt and that I was abused and that I wasn't sick and that I deserve more. Yeah. I mean, it really... I'm so sorry. I just...

Yeah, I mean, it's horrible. And it's an erasure of a whole group of people who've already been through so much. And I think, you know, part of why, I think part of why this narrative is activating for all of us, because it's activating for me too, because it's not the same, you know, my involvement with this. But, you know, I've had a lot of people, you know, including some extremely spicy emails from my sister's attorneys over the years. Yeah.

Tell me that I am delusional, that I am just obsessed with this, that I'm trying to use it to make a name for myself, that, you know, et cetera, et cetera, right? And so, like...

it's sort of like you didn't see what you think you saw and your life experience is not valid. And what you have to say about this, you know, in your case, like your personal experience, in my case, again, my personal experience of like growing up with this person and seeing all these things and like, that doesn't matter. It didn't happen. It's not what you think it is. And you're victimizing this other person by saying it is. And yeah, I mean, I go through the same thing, right? Like even I talked about this last season, we were talking in depth about my sister's case, like even going back through those files, like,

I am always looking for something that could be a plausible explanation. And at one point, you know, because Tina, our lead producer, was going back and forth with my sister Megan, she, you know, sent them specific questions for comment, right? We wanted to give them every chance to say anything that they have to say. We've always been open with that. And so, you know, we put together this list of questions and I...

Between that and the deadline, which they did not opt to answer those questions, between that and the deadline, I really had this thought where I was like, what if there's an explanation for all of it? What if she has some really good answer to all of this? And it's like...

Because there's part of you that still wants that. And I think what I want people to understand too is that like we go through this, doctors go through this too. Having one of these cases on their hands is a nightmare. Partly because it can play out like this one has and ruin all of their reputations for the rest of their lives.

Also, just because they've had their trust violated, they've been used to abuse a child, that's horrific for them. They would much prefer that there is some logical medical explanation for what is going on with a child than that it is abuse. They are not out there hunting and trying to make a case for

for that abuse that doesn't make any sense. There is no motive for them to do that. It just creates problems for them. And like, then they have to deal with trying to help a child in a system that's like not built for that. And so it's nobody's idea of a good time, you know? So...

Yeah. And I just worry about like the effect that this has all had on having on all survivors that are hearing this story. And I mean, yeah, I think you and I can both speak to like we did the pilot group of survivor peer support group together. We co-facilitated that and like.

having that experience of like listening to people tell their stories and just like watching everyone's face and being like, what? Like me too, me too, me too, me too. And just like where the patterns are so similar. And for me, like the first time I met the APSAC committee, which was the first time I met anybody who knew anything about it, like telling them my story and being like,

Are you guys ready? I have a crazy story. You're going to be so shocked. And then just like watching their faces be like, yep, yep, check, check, check. And just like they'd seen everything before. And so, yeah, again, like to then be told, oh, yes, this incredibly similar thing happened to all of you. And yet it's not a real phenomenon. It doesn't exist. Okay, so just a couple more questions.

I wonder what you think about this idea that is really being attached to this narrative that Beata died to save her daughter. Yeah. A lot of thoughts. I think my brain's like, there's so many thoughts. I mean, my mom has...

uh, tempted in front of me, um, a decent amount of times. And I, yeah, there's always, well, there's always two stories with my mom where it was always either like, um, she was like really struggling, you know, because of,

being a victim to different things or being sick or whatever. Or she was like struggling, supposedly, because I was like a bad kid. So there's always like one or the other. But either way, there was always like a lot of things going on with that. And I mean, I very much could see if

the same thing sort of thing happening in with my case, if it had gotten to a point where I had actually been separated from her. Well, I mean, I guess when I was separated from my mom because of the alcoholism, um, within a couple of months, my mom ended up in an induced coma in the ICU for three weeks because she drank so much. And I, I,

still I'm working through that and not blaming myself for it because it very much felt like, oh, this happened because I was removed from her. This happened because she needed me. We were, you know, it was us two against the world and suddenly she didn't have me. So if I had just stayed, then it would have been different. Yeah. So kind of similar in like that sort of a sense of

the letter that was written and all of that sort of stuff. Like I could see my mom writing something very, very, very similar. And I think... So sorry, here you're talking about the suicide note from Beata and what she had to say to Maya. Yes. I, yeah. I mean, there's so many times in my life that with how enmeshed me and my mom were that it was like...

like I said, simultaneously, it was the only reason my mom was alive is because I was with her. And then simultaneously, the reason that she didn't want to live was because I was bad. So there was like a mix, very mixed messages. And to this day, sometimes I'll be like, oh, maybe if I just lived with my mom, she would be okay enough. And like, I could take care of her and she would be

able to like live a different life than what she's living. So it's like, I hear all of that. And I also, you know, I have struggled with suicidality. I have been hospitalized for attempts and I'm grateful that I survived and that I'm alive. And within that struggle with suicidality, what I know about suicidality, what I've seen from

friends that have struggled with this or things that I've read or learned and all of that. There's often it's more attempts usually come in because of feeling trapped or feeling like there's no way out or things like that, which I'm sure that she was feeling with everything that was going on. But to say that you're doing this to save someone when you know that

she was safe in a hospital. I get that there was different... And there was an active plan to... I mean, we're going to get into all this, but there was an active plan to release her into her father's custody. So, I mean, it was not...

It doesn't quite hold up under scrutiny. And I worry that Maya could feel guilt over that happening. And there were some really interesting comments that Maya herself made during the neuropsych eval that she was given at the hospital, where it certainly struck me that she felt responsible for her mother's emotions and

in a way that did not seem like a normal sort of child parent. Because I can tell you, like, okay, and my kids are younger, but, like, you know, my kids are, like, if I'm visibly upset, they're upset. But, like, they're not, like, out there thinking about, like, you know, it's just, like, there was sort of an over-concern that felt almost parental, like, you know, that she was upset.

really worried that if she got better, I mean, this was one of the most striking moments in this, that she said that she was worried, you know, kind of intimated that she was worried that if she wasn't sick anymore, that her mom would be sad and that she was already so sad. True. What did you make of kind of Maya's comments during that evaluation? I only read part, I think, of the neuropsych evas. So I did not

read all of it. I think I struggled with reading the neuropsych eval because, yeah, I had my own neuropsych eval done. And I think that I had a really bad experience with that. And so I think I was, I couldn't like objectively read it for what it was very well without my biases kind of taking over. Yeah.

Yeah, and we're going to ask Dr. Mary Sanders about that too. And I think her being a child psychiatrist, I think that'll help give us some framework. Okay, so just kind of like two quick last things. So I think another thing that struck me is like, I'm so sad for Maya. You're so sad for Maya. I think everyone, hopefully in this situation, is prioritizing her. And it's like the fact that she loved her mom and misses her mom is,

is not proof of anything in terms of whether abuse happened or didn't happen. Because kids love their parents even when their parents are abusive. Like, I think that's a bit of a wrong idea that Maya defending her mom right now, it doesn't tell us anything about what actually happened, right? Yeah, that's, yeah. When I look back at the records from when I was, like, taken out of the home as a teenager and...

Stuff that the guardian ad litem, social worker, and court appointed counselor, like stuff that they would write in their notes. Like it was so clear how enmeshed I was. Okay, my mom's the reason I was taken out of the home. I'm the one who did speak up though about it, right? So I helped get myself out of a dangerous situation. And this was though with regards, sorry, this was with regards to her alcoholism, not the medical child abuse. Correct. Medical child abuse was never...

mentioned to me at least until I was an adult. So, but it was not part of why I was taken out at all. It was just the alcoholism.

But the comments that I would make in therapy or to the social worker or things like that, even after, like I said, I at that point was angry at my mom. I was so angry because I knew about the alcoholism. Like I knew that like what was happening between us wasn't okay. And yet after I got taken out, all I did was fight until they put me back. I fought tooth and nail until they brought me home. And then once again, that I like,

bought that too and was like, how could you put me back here and want it out again? So but it was just like, there's always been this back and forth. And to this day, there's this like, back and forth where I am very aware of the fact that my mom has never and is incapable of loving me or expressing any emotion really for

for that matter. But and I can recognize like all the trauma and the abuse and all the things that like aren't OK. And I don't want a relationship with her.

And on that same note, I still love her so deeply and will sometimes star six, seven, call her just to hear her voice. And then I'll hang up because I just need that comfort that I think I'm like getting from that. And I still, like I said, if she called and said that she loved me and she was sorry, there's so much in me that would want to move back in with her and take care of her.

because even after everything, like I still, yeah, I still love her so much. And I still do defend her at points and say like, you know, she was sick. She didn't get a chance. She should have been able to get help when she was a kid and didn't get the help that she needed. And it turned into who she is now and all of that. Like I still have so much compassion for her. And I think, yeah, just in general, I...

have a lot of compassion for people that most people wouldn't and that most people never will. And I don't see that very often with like 99.9% of the population. I think most people are like bad people are bad people, especially when it's child abuse or things like that nature.

And I see this a lot with survivors of having this like different level of empathy and compassion that you just don't see in other people, which I very much attribute to

the violence. And I have like a sticker that says like, you'll never know the amount of violence it took to become this gentle. And I really, that like always, I will read it. So a lot of times in support groups with survivors and a lot of people get really emotional when they hear that, because it's just, it's just, it's true. Like no matter, because of what we've been through, we have way more compassion and empathy and it's,

Yeah. Because it's like a survival mechanism, essentially. Yeah. Yeah. So if you could say something to Maya, what would you say to Maya? Oh, I wasn't prepared for that type of a question. I'm getting emotional again. But if I were a big feelings show. Yeah. Can't not have big feelings around at all, I guess. Yeah.

I think I would just want Maya to know like she doesn't, that it's okay. Like she doesn't have to do this. Like she does not have, like I believe her. I believe that she was sick. I believe that the doc, that different doctors made her uncomfortable and that she like had to do what she had to do. And like that she was just in such a survival sort of place. Like I, I see that,

I see the pain that she went through. I see all of the different pieces of that. And I get it. I understand it. And I am not accusing her of lying about anything at all. And I don't need her to prove herself. I think she survived. And regardless of is it that she survived or

her family or is it that she survived the hospital or that she survived the whatever, like whatever it is, like she survived and like she's gotten to this point and like she doesn't, I would just want her to know she doesn't have to prove anything to anyone anymore and that she can just, she can just have a different life. She can be, she can heal. She can still have a voice and heal and like all of that. And she can also,

keep doing the different athletic things that it seems that she really enjoys doing and she can keep doing school and keep having like all these different experiences that don't have to do with any of the past. Yeah. Yeah, that's beautiful. And I want the same for her. And I think one of the most complicated questions for me in even tackling this and honestly, like,

You know, the other seasons of the show we've done, we've done with the families it happened to. It's so different to be sort of talking about a case from the outside like this. And obviously doing it in such a way that obviously I don't think Maya herself at this moment would appreciate very much. And I sort of thought like, well, you know, I don't know if it would be better. I think for you, for a lot of the other survivors, that reckoning was,

of understanding what happened to them has been really important. But part of that also is because their parent is still alive and they still have to deal with that person and they need to like understand that person for what they are. But as Beata is not, I sort of, and like, it's not my place to say what's best for her, obviously, but like,

you know, I sort of wonder like maybe whatever story she needs to tell herself about what happened to be okay is fine. And she just needs to like go forward and have a life

but I really hope that the status of being a celebrity victim is not going to define her because now she has been on the cover of People, she has been in this Netflix thing. And, you know, that this whole story and this whole narrative has just totally consumed her young life. And like, I would just like to go see her be normal and like, you know, not in the spotlight and not having to sort of play, you know,

the role of the sad, beautiful girl at the center of this horrific case. You know, like, I just don't think that is like a very healthy thing to impose on a kid. So I think like, I hope that whatever is best for her to tell herself about her life and what happened, that she does that and...

goes forward and hopefully has good relationships with her dad and her brother and those other people around her that clearly love her like watching her uncle testify he clearly adores that girl I think being put in this position of saying that this abuse is real and somehow that's we're against Maya is really horrible because we're not we're we're we're for her and we want the best for her

And, you know, whatever she wants to sort of like do and is her own business, but I hope she just gets some distance from this. And just as a final thing, you know, we talked about how this is kind of impacting you and the survivors that we know. So for survivors who are listening to this and who are not yet part of our community, number one, you are welcome. You can get in touch. Yeah.

But like, what do you want to say to survivors who are hearing this and feeling some of those things that you were feeling about sort of having their experiences and even sort of their entire identity erased by this narrative? Yeah. Yeah, I think I've been thinking about survivors so much because I know...

I am far along in my healing. I am like, have a lot more separation and things like that. And understanding and all of that sort of stuff. And a lot of people that reach out, you know, they're just finding out about,

that they went through this like within the past week or like within the past month or it's more recent oftentimes. And so I can only imagine like if this has made me have panic attacks and cry a lot and like has really affected my like mental health and wellbeing, I can only imagine how it could affect other people to see these things or to hear what's going on and all of that. I think my...

Biggest message to survivors is we see you and like we are fighting for you still. There is a lot of people that are fighting behind the scenes,

on the scenes, everywhere. There's a lot of people that are fighting still and that like, we're not, we're not going to back down or anything like that. Like our, your life matters, our lives matter and our stories matter. That's beautiful. Yeah. And,

And I'll just add to that that, like, you know, we made this show to give, you know, a huge part of the mission of this show is to give voice to this and give survivors a voice. So we want to hear from you if all this resonates with you.

Well, thank you so much, Joe. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hey, it is Ryan Seacrest. There's something so thrilling about playing Chumba Casino. Maybe it's the simple reminder that with a little luck, anything is possible. ChumbaCasino.com has hundreds of social casino-style games to choose from with new game releases each week. Play for free anytime, anywhere, for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Join me in the fun. Sign up now at ChumbaCasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino.

No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus. Terms and conditions apply.