Take Care of Maya

So heartbreaking 😭

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As "Take Care of Maya" (2023 release; 103 min.) opens, It's "February 24, 2021" as we are introduced to a guy named Jack. He muses "There is nothing that could prepare me for what I went through." We then go back in time: Jack remembers meeting Beata, and eventually they have 2 kids, a girl and a boy. The girl, Maya, suffers from a strange illness when she is 9... At this point we are less than 15 minutes into the documentary. Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from director Henry Roosevelt ("Tough Guys"). Here he examines the phenomenon currently referred to as medical child abuse (a/k/a Munchausen's by proxy). Jack and Beata bring Maya to the ER at Johns Hopkins All Children's, and next thing we know the hospital calls in Children Protective Services, and things only get worse from there.. I mean, you have to see it for yourself because otherwise you won't believe it. (The fact that Florida outsources its privatized child welfare service to a third party should be an INSTANT red flag, but hey that's Florida for ya.) The results are as predictable as they are preventable. Families shredded apart? No worries. Lives destroyed? Who cares. I honestly don't know how some of these people can sleep at night. This documentary is bound to get under your skin, if not outright infuriate you. Don't say I didn't warn you! "Take Care of Maya" premiered recently at the Tribeca, to immediate critical acclaim. There is good reason why this documentary is rated 91% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It started airing on Netflix a few days ago, which is where I saw it. If you are in the mood for a medical=themed documentary that is equally heartbreaking as it is infuriating, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I'm extremely bothered by this one-sided documentary. Did Maya have CRPS? I'm not a physician but am bothered by how the parents initially treated it by going to a doctor who gave Maya high doses of Ketamine and then the parents going to Mexico. Why not go to elsewhere in the U. S. to seek treatment? MPS is definitely a real phenomenon and there have been instances of a parent actually killing their child for sympathy. Pinellas County CPS was correct in taking this seriously and keeping the mother away while they continued to treat Maya. Did they go to far? Perhaps. However, I do believe the medical team thought they were making the right decision at that time. Was the mother responsible? Is that why she really killed herself when the Maya continued to improve? Is it a coincidence that Maya recovered after my mother's death? Or was this really a case of MPS? I don't think we will ever know. Thankfully Maya appears to be doing well now.

The level of corruption, lawlessness, evil and cruelty cannot be matched. To know that the state has this much power over you is the most terrifying takeaway from that documentary. They're technically running like organized crime rings. People need to know that until we face this and confront it, thousands of lives will be destroyed and an industry of abuse will flourish. The heartless people who caused this misery need to face justice, the victims deserve their closures. It's heinous. It's scary. We should spread awareness and help the family to be heard, not silenced and dehumanized by a system that doesn't care.

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So one-sided it is actually shocking. How was this incredibly flawed documentary even greenlit and worse being streamed by netflix at this scale All you see is through the lens of one of the parties, the parents! A documentary should show all parties involved in a proportionate and equal way, that is called a fair representation. Why are all of the medical staff that dealt with Maya and can provide valuable insight of what happened day to day, not interviewed of part of the documentary? Coincidence? There is no such thing as a coincidence. Not wanting to minimize Maya's feelings of what she went through, but you can clearly see there were some red flags that prompted the hospital to take some action, especially the mother's behaviour. (It does come across as there might have been some psychological imbalance) It is called reasonable doubt especially when you are dealing with the wellbeing of a child! So the hospital had to do something. Again we do not have the point of view of any of the medical staff, so we don't have the full picture. And the other parents at the end of the documentary? It just further shows how biased this wholr thing is. Do we know enough about those cases to evaluate if they are valid or not?? Or are they just part of it to paint a very biased picture? Munchausen by proxy is a very real and complex disorder. So this documentary just makes it feel it is a fantasy. Again same applies to CRPS, so i don't want to minimize that either I just thing we should have been presented all facts, equally, from all parties involved.