Monday 30 April 2012

Lina Medina became a mother at the age of 5


In 1939 at Pisco in Peru, an Indian woman from the foothills of the Andes brought her child a little girl, scarcely three feet tall, with an enormously bulging abdomen. She wanted the doctor of the hospital Surgeon Geraldo Lozada to help her exorcise the evil spirits which she believed had taken possession of her child. Certain that the little child had an abdominal tumour, Dr. Lozada examined her, and received the surprise of his life when he discovered that the little girl, Lina Medina who was just 5 years old was eight months pregnant. 
       
Lina was taken to the capital of Peru for further check up by other specialists and it was confirmed that Lina was in fact pregnant. It was also confirmed that her menarche had occurred at 8 months of age, and that she had had prominent breast development by the age of 4. By age 5 her figure displayed pelvic widening and advanced bone maturation. A month and a half later, on May 14, 1939, she gave birth to a boy by a caesarean section necessitated by her small pelvis in a surgery performed by Dr. Lozada and Dr. Busalleu, with Dr. Colretta providing anaesthesia, this making Lina Medina the youngest birth mother ever. Her son at birth weighed 2.7 kg (6 lb) and was named Gerardo after her doctor. Gerardo grew up healthy and died in 1979 at the age of 40 of a disease of the bone marrow. 
       
The big question is, "who was the father of the child?" There was never evidence that Lina Medina's pregnancy occurred in any but the usual way, but she never revealed the father of the child, nor the circumstances of her impregnation for she couldn't give a precise response. Dr. Escomel suggested she might not actually know herself. Lina's father was arrested on suspicion of rape and incest, but was later released due to lack of evidence. In history 80% of young birth mothers were impregnated by a very close relative such as their father, grandfather, brother, cousin, step father, half brother e.t.c.
      
There is a closely related cases of young birth at age 6 (yelizaveta "Liza" from Ukraine in 1934) and a case of a Nigerian young birth mother, Mum-Zi who gave birth at the age of 8 to Chief Akkiri ,she was a member of Chief Akkiri's harem in an island in Calaber, Nigeria. Her daughter also gave birth extremely early making Mum-Zi a grandmother at age 15.
       
The above photos shows when Medina was seven and a half months into pregnancy, Lina Medina and her son after delivery and when her son Gerardo was eleven months old.

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