Today, 14th May, in 1939, Lina Medina, a little girl from Peru logged a new miracle in medical history. The five-year-old became the mother of another child at her tender age. She was born in 1933.

 

In April 1939, little Lina’s mother took her to the hospital in a little town called Pisco, in Peru. The girl’s protruding belly got her mother very worried. Being from a poor, uneducated family in a remote village, the mother thought her child had been possessed by evil spirits.

 

The doctor, Dr Gerardo Lozada, naturally thought it was the strange case of a huge abdominal tumour. Unknown to him, he was in for a surprise. After some tests and a very critical examination, Dr. Lozada discovered that the little girl was pregnant. The bizarreness of the situation caused the doctor to go the country’s capital to re-evaluate his findings. A heart was indeed beating inside Lina, and she was in fact seven months pregnant.

 

 

Lina was only five years, seven months and three weeks old when she became the youngest mother in history. The baby she birthed was healthy and weighed six pounds. Little Lina had to go through a caesarean section as her pelvis was too small to support a natural birth. That year, the day coincided with the United States’ Mother’s Day celebration (second Sunday in May every year).

 

The childbirth procedure went well, and the five-year-old mother and her newborn were discharged from the hospital briefly after. They named the baby Gerardo after the doctor who handled her case.

 

Precocious puberty

This extraordinary occurrence birthed a lot of questions. Medical specialists, upon further examinations, discovered that Lina had a very rare condition called precocious puberty. This disorder is so rare that it only happens in 1 out of every 10,000 children. It is an occurrence where a child experiences puberty at an extremely young age.

 

 

It was revealed that Lina Medina had started her period at the tender age of three. By the time she was four, she already had advanced development in her breasts. At five years old she started showing signs of progressive maturity and growth in her bones.

 

Whose baby is it?

The biggest question now plaguing all at this point is, how did the five-year-old mother conceive? The question, unfortunately, is one that is yet to be answered till date. At first, the suspicions were at her father. Authorities thought it was a case of child incest. However, that was dismissed when there was no concrete proof to back the allegations.

 

 

Herself and her family apparently never spoke to the media about the case, and the identity of the baby’s father was never known. But, in an article on the case in 1955, there were speculations that Lina Medina might have been r***d during certain festivities that took place in her village at the time. The festivities reportedly often involved pagan elements that involved r**e. However, these speculations were never confirmed.

 

Lina Medina’s life

Lina grew up believing her son, Gerardo, was her sibling. It was not only after the boy turned ten that he was told that Lina was his mother. According to reports, Lina had a normal childhood and did not suffer any mental issues. She played with her dolls and felt no added maternal instincts.

 

Also, Dr Lozada did not stop being a part of their lives. He employed Lina at some point so that she could earn a living for herself and her son. She also got an education and sent her son, Gerardo, to school.

 

 

Lina later got married and had another child in 1972. This was 33 years after Gerardo was born. However, Gerardo died seven years after in 1979 from a bone marrow disease.

 

Lina managed to live a quiet life and did not grant any press interviews. She was even offered thousands of dollars by American newspapers for an interview, an offer she and her family declined.

 

Lina allegedly died of a heart attack in November 2015.

 

 

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