This week, parents who brought their unresponsive newborn to a hospital in Orange County in 2020 were found guilty of felony child abuse on the grounds that they failed to provide the baby with the proper nutrition and exposed him to extreme heat and cold, resulting in severe brain damage that left the child quadriplegic and unable to speak or see.
According to the Orange County district attorney’s office, Jaqueline Navarro, 45, and John Andres Gonzalez, 38, were both found guilty of felony child abuse and endangerment with an enhancement for causing grave physical injury to a child under the age of five. The maximum penalty for each of them is 12 years in prison.
According to the prosecution, the pair identified as vegan mucus-free fruitarians, which seems to allude to their belief in a diet that purges the body of mucus. Prosecutors said that they were also adherents of naturopathy, which generally refers to using a more comprehensive strategy to prevent and treat illness by addressing its underlying causes.
However, according to prosecutors and lawsuits regarding the case, Gonzalez and Navarro seemed to hold radical and incorrect beliefs about these procedures, such as the idea that breast milk was harmful and that the body could heal itself. Prosecutors said that they would only give the infant fruits, veggies, and soy-based formula. According to his paternal grandmother’s lawsuit, the couple fed the infant mostly pureed bananas and dates with honey in an effort to keep him on a plant-based diet.
during the best nutrition, doctors, including naturopaths, advise nursing or using formula nearly exclusively during the first six months of a baby’s life.
Prosecutors claimed that the pair also started subjecting their son to cold baths and hot saunas within weeks of his birth.
California
According to authorities, a 9-month-old’s parents were taken into custody on Tuesday after the child tested positive for cocaine at a Tulare County hospital.
When the couple, who had been on vacation, brought their limp, unresponsive youngster to the Hoag Hospital Emergency Room in Newport Beach, Orange County officials became engaged in the case. The pair resided in Tulare County’s Lindsay.
The prosecutor’s statement stated that the infant was gray, malnourished, and catatonic. Doctors at the emergency room found that the youngster had hypoxia, frequent seizures, and very low blood sugar levels.
Prosecutors claimed that additional testing verified that he had not been fed correctly. However, according to the prosecutor’s testimony, Gonzalez refused numerous life-saving procedures even while he was in the hospital and claimed he thought that starving would promote healing.
According to medical professionals, the boy’s brain damage is irreversible, leaving him blind, quadriplegic, and unable to walk, communicate, or eat by himself. His paternal grandma is currently caring for the five-year-old boy.
Soon after her grandson’s birth, the grandmother began to worry about him and called the Tulare County Department of Child Welfare Services several times to report what she believed to be abuse or neglect.
She sued the county’s welfare agency, alleging that the agency’s negligence caused her grandson to suffer irreversible brain damage. In 2023, that case was settled for $32 million, which at the time was thought to be the biggest payout ever collected from a California child protective services agency.
According to a statement from Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, the defenseless youngster suffered from almost the moment he took his first breath because his parents thought that starving would heal him. Rather than healing him, they took away his sight, his first steps, his first words, and his opportunity to experience the world. Unfortunately, his parents starved him almost to death rather than providing him with the nutrients he sorely needed, thus he will never get to experience any of those milestones.
Gonzalez and Navarro will be sentenced on July 25 and are presently being held without bail.
