Temporary restraining order prevents parents from starving adult daughter to death

A severely disabled woman was set to be killed through dehydration and starvation, until a temporary restraining order (TRO) prevented her parents from going through with the horrific plan.

In June 2020, Margaret “Margo” Naranjo was seriously injured in a multi-vehicle car crash when another vehicle ran a red light and slammed into her car. She was planning her wedding for that December. The driver pled guity to aggravated assault with serious bodily injury. Margo was left with brain damage, and her family spent years praying for her recovery. Initially, doctors recommended comfort care only for Margo, saying there was nothing that could be done to save her.

“Little did I realize that was a euphemism for let your daughter die and let’s make it as peaceful as possible,” her father, Mike, said in an interview with KETK. “There’s no reason why she’s alive today. On the first night, they did the surgery, they had to leave the abdomen open because there was so much damage. They couldn’t close it.”

For the past several years, Mike and Cathy Naranjo have devoted themselves to caring for Margo, and praying for her recovery. Years worth of social media posts indicate that they were dedicated to her, and from the beginning, said Margo had indicated prior to the accident that she didn’t want to be kept alive by machines. Letting her die was a decision they thought they would have to make in the beginning, when Margo was left in a coma; as Mike wrote on Facebook:

So here I am, for about 30 plus days that she was in the coma, with the feeding tube, and on a breathing machine, begging God that I would not have to make that decision. This was the scripture that I prayed over every day. “Father, if possible let this cup pass before me!” Honestly I struggled with the let Your will be done because if it was His will to take her back, I was not ready to align with that.

Eventually, Margo recovered from the coma, and was able to breathe on her own, as well as swallow small bites of food and take small sips of liquids. It’s not clear what made the Naranjos shift in their decision to kill Margo, but a horrifying livestream was posted earlier this month (now deleted), in which Cathy sat next to her daughter and said they were going to allow her to die.

Explaining that she was nervous and intimidated to start the video, Cathy explained in front of Margo how she was going to kill her. While it’s not entirely clear why the Naranjos had a change of heart about caring for their daughter, the video insinuates that financial issues may be part of the reason. After referencing Margo’s previous wishes to not be kept artificially alive, Cathy said they had been grappling with that conversation over the past four years… and then began discussing finances.

“Early this year – and especially with all the insurance trouble, and trying to figure out if we were going to have nurses or not, we kind of started – I started looking for a backup plan in case we had no nurses,” Cathy said. “So I had met with the hospice people, and they were amazing.” She further said it would take around three to five days for Margo to die, and described a death by starvation and dehydration as a “peaceful” way to die.

“I feel like, people believe in different things, Margo believes in heaven,” Cathy said. “She wants to be there. If you believe in heaven, why wouldn’t you want to be there? So that’s where we are going to let her go.”

Cathy explained they were going to take her off of “life support,” and already had a funeral and celebration of life planned at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Coppell, Texas on August 2nd and 3rd; it appeared the church was not aware that the parents had been essentially planning to euthanize their daughter, because journalist Christine Niles posted on X that the funeral was cancelled, and the pastor spoke with the Naranjos about the Catholic Church’s position on assisted suicide and euthanasia.

It’s important to point out that Margo is not actively dying; she is not being kept artificially alive by machines, and she is not on life support. She is able to process food and water, and she can breathe on her own. Margo would, like any other person, die if she was deprived of food and water. Without that deprivation, Margo would not die. A death by dehydration is particularly cruel, painful, and gruesome, despite Cathy describing it as peaceful and merely falling into a deep sleep.

Texas attorney Courtland Kristoferson filed an Emergency Application for Issuance of Temporary Restraining Order against the Naranjos, saying home health carers and Adult Protective Services had indicated that Margo did communicate her wishes to continue receiving food, hydration, and treatment.

In the emergency application, Margo’s home health carers said they had been able to devise a system where she was able to answer yes and no questions; when asked if she wanted to discontinue hydration, nutrition, and medical treatment, Margo answered no. The application also said that “the home health workers taking care of Margaret have represented that she is in good condition and that her health has not declined or deteriorated to the point hospice treatment is necessary. Despite that, the Co-Guardians have placed her on hospice.” The application requested for the Naranjos to be removed as Margo’s guardians, stating that “[i]f Catherine Naranjo, Michael Naranjo, and any other person providing medical care to Margaret Naranjo is not immediately restrained, and further restrained on a temporary basis as requested in this Application, [Margo] will likely die, thus suffering a probable, imminent and irreparable damage by dying.”

For now, Margo is safe; the TRO was granted, and a temporary guardian has been assigned, allowing Margo to continue receiving food and water.

READ: TikTok video awarded for exposing 5 ‘excuses’ used to exclude people with disabilities

Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo, knows firsthand what the Naranjos are going through – and, sadly, he knows what it’s like to see a loved one killed through starvation and dehydration. Despite massive effort to save her, Schiavo was victim to her husband’s efforts to allow her to slowly die, deprived of food and water over a period of 13 days. No comfort care was provided. Schindler described the horror of his sister’s final days:

After almost two weeks without food or water, my sister’s lips were horribly cracked, to the point where they were blistering. Her skin became jaundiced with areas that turned different shades of blue. Her skin became markedly dehydrated from the lack of water. Terri’s breathing became rapid and uncontrollable, as if she was outside sprinting.

Her moaning, at times, was raucous, which indicated to us the insufferable pain she was experiencing. Terri’s face became skeletal, with blood pooling in her deeply sunken eyes and her teeth protruding forward. Even as I write this, I can never properly describe the nightmare of having to watch my sister have to die this way.

What will be forever seared in my memory is the look of utter horror on my sister’s face when my family visited her just after she died.

In a statement to LifeSiteNews, Schindler said, “My heart goes out to the parents of Margo Naranjo, as my family knows the profound effect that these types of injuries can have on loved ones. However, we must remember that we have the moral obligation to do all we can to preserve life and protect those with disabilities, recognizing that a person with a brain injury is a human being with inherent dignity and a right to life-affirming care. This young girl needs only food, water, and her family’s love to survive. At the very least, this should be provided to her. Please pray for Ms. Naranjo and that her parents have a change of heart.”

Editor’s Note, 8/5/24: The original version of this article mistakenly referenced the wrong name for Bobby Schindler’s interview with LifeSiteNews. We regret the error.

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