ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. (TCN) —Â A mother and father who consider themselves naturopathic were recently convicted of exposing their newborn son to saunas and ice baths, as well as starving him and causing severe brain damage “that left him a quadriplegic unable to walk, talk, or see.”
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced July 2 that 38-year-old John Gonzalez and 45-year-old Jaqueline Navarro were each convicted of one felony count of child abuse and endangerment and one felony enhancement of causing great bodily injury to a child under 5. They are scheduled to be sentenced on July 25 and face a maximum of 12 years in state prison.
According to prosecutors, Gonzalez and Navarro “consider themselves followers of naturopathy, the belief that the body can heal itself.” Within weeks of their son’s birth, they reportedly exposed him to high-temperature saunas and ice baths. Prosecutors said Gonzalez and Navarro “refused to feed the baby formula or breast milk because they believed it was toxic.”
In October 2019, the child’s paternal grandmother, Patrizia Sanchez, reached out to the Tulare County Department of Child Welfare Services because she was concerned about her grandson’s welfare. She reportedly continued to call multiple times, telling officials that “the infant was still suffering.”
According to the district attorney’s office, the Department of Child Welfare Services failed to protect the baby from malnourishment that led to permanent brain damage and seizures. As a result, Tulare County had to pay $32 million to settle a lawsuit.
Gonzalez and Navarro brought their 10-month-old son to the Hoag Hospital Emergency Room in Newport Beach during a trip to Orange County on Aug. 1, 2020. Prosecutors said the child was gray, emaciated, and catatonic. Medical professionals reportedly noticed the boy had “extremely low blood sugar levels and suffered from hypoxia and constant seizures.”
The child was transported to Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and the medical director determined the boy hadn’t been properly fed, causing extremely low blood glucose levels.
According to the district attorney’s office, the defendants are “vegan mucus-free fruitarians and would only feed the baby soy-based baby formula, fruits, and vegetables.” While the victim was being hospitalized in August, prosecutors said, “Gonzalez objected to many lifesaving treatments and told medical staff he believed that starvation would lead to healing.”
The victim’s paternal grandmother was awarded custody of the child.
The boy is now 5 years old and is reportedly unable to “walk, talk, or eat on his own.” The neurologic damage he sustained because of severe malnutrition is permanent.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said, “This innocent child suffered from almost the first breath he took because of his parents’ beliefs that starvation would cure him. Instead of curing him, they robbed him of his sight, his ability to take his first steps, to say his first words, and his chance to see the world through the eyes of a child who is seeing everything for the first time. Tragically, he will never get to experience any of those milestones because his parents starved him nearly to death instead of giving him the nourishment he so desperately needed.”
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