In 1939, a healthy baby boy was born in Peru. It is worth noting that the boy’s mother is only 5 years old. The story sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.
Pregnant at the age of 5 Lina Medina was born into a poor family in Ticrapo, Castrovirreyna province (Peru), to a silversmith father Tiburelo Medina and mother Victoria Losea. In the early spring of 1939, the family began to worry about their 5-year-old daughter, so they took her to see a doctor in Lima. Her belly has grown in recent months, so her family thinks she has a tumor in her body. All were very shocked and horrified when the doctor diagnosed little Lina Medina 7 months pregnant. Dr. Gerardo Lozada took her to Lima (the capital of Peru) before the operation, so that other experts could confirm that Lina was indeed pregnant. Six weeks later, on May 14, 1939, Medina gave birth to a healthy baby boy, weighing 2.7 kg. Because the pelvis is still small, doctors recommend a cesarean section. The surgery was performed by Dr. Lozada and Busalleu, while Dr. Colretta was anesthetist. Her case was recorded by Dr. Edmundo Escomel at La Presse Medicale hospital. Here, doctors discovered that despite being young, Medina had adult genitals and details that were very different from normal girls such as: her period had started at 8 months. age, and breasts develop by age 4. At the age of 5, her pelvis began to develop, and her height increased significantly. These are all common signs of puberty. In the end, the doctors concluded that the girl had precocious puberty syndrome. A young mother (right cover) gave birth to a baby when she was 5 years old. According to Telegraph India, Lina Medina became the youngest mother in the world at the age of 5 years, 7 months and 21 days. The baby boy was named Gerardo, after the doctor who delivered Lina. Precocious puberty affects about 1 in 10,000 children each year. However, the trend towards early puberty in children is increasing, and most of the time, the cause is unknown. Some factors increase the likelihood of early puberty in children including genetic factors, endocrine, living environment, diet, living conditions in the family, other diseases of the body. Medina herself never told anyone about the child’s father, although Medina’s father Tiburelo was arrested soon after on charges of child rape. In the end, Tiburelo was released and the charges against him were insufficient. He did not accept responsibility for having sex with his daughter, nor did authorities have evidence or Medina’s testimony to arrest Tiburelo. However, an article on the case published in October 1955 by author Luis Leon said that many remote Indian villages in Peru regularly held religious festivals. Up to that point, they still maintained the customs of group sex and sometimes rape. There is no shortage of stories like the Medina mentioned above. In this case, the authorities were unable to obtain any reasonable testimony from Medina about the incident. If Medina is willing to tell the story, this will be solid evidence to find the biological father of the fetus. Baby Lina Medina and her son. Still living a secret life When there is no explanation for this case, the media weaves many stories around the girl as well as the child’s father. Newspapers in Peru offered to pay thousands of dollars to interview and film Lina and her family. Newspapers in the US also want to do a program about this special case. Many organizations even want Lina to appear in a reality show about weird people. Many American newspapers at that time were disappointing when they published similar articles and only intended to stimulate the curiosity of readers. Once again, the whole Medina family received many invitations to the US to attend interviews with the press. The stories woven from the press also turn their lives upside down. This family chose to remain silent and refused all offers. Therefore, documents about her are very few, only a few photos taken when Lina was pregnant with low resolution. Lina regularly refuses interviews from international newspapers, local newspapers and television programs. This story still attracts the attention of the public to this day. For example, the Wikipedia article on Lina Medina still has controversy about whether she is still alive and questions about her are increasing day by day. This is perhaps inevitable given the startling nature of the story, in addition to the girl’s self-isolation. Perhaps, Lina was afraid that people in the community would judge her and her family. 80 years later, the case of Medina is still a strange story. Neither Lina nor her family benefited in any way from this story, and medical records from that time still document her condition fully. There are only two pictures of Lina when she was pregnant. And only a low-resolution profile picture was published alongside medical documents. Up to now, the case of a 5-year-old girl giving birth to a healthy baby is still a rare story and a mysterious problem that medicine has not found the answer to. Although Lina’s record includes various medical records handled by the doctors, the abdominal X-ray showed that the bones of the fetus were developing in Medina’s body. The blood test also confirmed the baby’s pregnancy was completely normal. The analyzes in the file were all reviewed by contemporary researchers, and they were unable to find any errors in Lina’s case. Lina seems to have received fairly good medical care, especially around the time she lived and gave birth to a healthy 2.7kg baby boy on May 14, 1939. The child was born Gerardo and was taken to Tiburelo Medina’s home as soon as he was released. Gerardo grew up thinking that Lina was his older sister, he only knew the truth when he was a teenager. In a 1955 interview, Gerardo stated that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. Despite having no disability or health problems, in 1979, Gerardo passed away at the age of 40 of natural causes. In addition to breaking records as the world’s youngest mother, Lina Medina has lived a normal life in Peru. While many people learn about the reason why Lina became pregnant early, child education expert Paul Koask (Columbia University, USA) asked another question. She visited Medina’s family 2 years after Lina gave birth. Koask found Lina “smarter than usual” and growing steadily. According to Time magazine, Lina works as a secretary at Dr. Lozada’s clinic. He was the one who financially supported her to go to school and raised Gerardo. Lina then married a man named Raul in the early 1970s and gave birth to her second child in 1972, at the age of 39. Lina and Raul were not wealthy people. They are still together and live in a poor neighborhood in Lima, called Chicago Chico. The special story of a 5-year-old mother inspired obstetrician Jose Sandoval to write the book Mother Aged 5, which gathers the research and details surrounding this case. Lina herself and her family still keep the principle of being secretive in front of the media as well as those around them. The case of Lina Medina has left the pediatricians astounded and of course this fact has been thoroughly researched. But so far, the true story of the world’s youngest mother Lina Medina and the circumstances surrounding her strange story are still many unanswered mysteries.
You must log in to post a comment.