California Parents' 'Extreme' Health Views Left Child a Quadriplegic
The Orange County district attorney's office determined that parents John Andres Gonzalez, 38, and Jaqueline Navarro, 45, were both guilty of felony child abuse and endangerment. They were each sentenced to a maximum of 12 years in prison, a punishment enhanced by the aggravating circumstance of causing great bodily injury to a child under 5.
According to the OCDA's press release, charges against Gonzalez and Navarro stemmed from "exposing their newborn son to extreme heat and cold" and "withholding vital nourishment."
The couple's negligence was said to have nearly killed the infant and resulted in severe brain damage, leaving the child "a quadriplegic unable to walk, talk, or see."
The press release went into detail about the parents' dangerous health practices. Gonzalez and Navarro subscribed to naturopathy, which is the belief that the body can heal itself from diseases without the help of modern medicine.
When the baby was born in 2019, the parents did not feed him breast milk or formula, believing both to be "toxic" for their child. The couple considered themselves vegan mucus-free fruitarians, which pushed them to feed their son only soy-based formula, fruits, and vegetables. They also exposed him to "high-temperature saunas" and "ice baths" when he was just weeks old.
The lifestyle eventually led to a medical emergency. The baby was rushed to the emergency room of an Orange County hospital in August 2020. The then-10-month-old infant was in a catatonic state and had graying skin. Gonzalez continued pushing his extreme health beliefs while his son was hospitalized, imploring medical staff to starve his son to heal him.
While the child survived, he was left with irreversible brain damage.
His paternal grandmother, Patrizia Sanchez, repeatedly reported what was happening to the Tulare County Department of Child Welfare Services when the child was still a month old. Despite over a dozen calls to the office, the agency failed to act on Sanchez's warnings, per the press release.
Sanchez later filed a lawsuit against the Tulare County, leading to the largest settlement of its kind in California history. Sanchez was awarded custody of the child.California Parents' 'Extreme' Health Views Left Child a Quadriplegic first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 4, 2025
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