“There was a lot going on, and Maya was” - she widened her eyes at the memory - “captivating. “They were very distressed,” Hansen later recalled.
The nurse, concerned by the demand for such a powerful drug, asked a social worker named Debra Hansen to meet with the Kowalskis. When a nurse attempted to conduct an ultrasound, her mother insisted that the only way Maya could tolerate the contact was if she received an infusion of ketamine. Maya spent 24 hours in the intensive-care unit at All Children’s, screaming and writhing. They said that she was acutely sensitive to stimuli of all kinds and that disabling pain radiated through her legs and feet, requiring the use of a wheelchair. The girl’s parents, Beata and Jack Kowalski, had told the hospital that Maya suffered from a neurological disorder called complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS. Smith listened as a doctor detailed the case. The name belonged to a 10-year-old girl who had just been admitted for abdominal pain. Smith was the medical director of the child-protection team for Pinellas County, and she grabbed a piece of paper to take notes. Sally Smith received a call from the pediatric emergency room at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. One Saturday afternoon in the fall of 2016, Dr.
