FIVE-YEAR OLD MOTHER:

Lina Medina (pictured above) was born in Peru in 1933. She gave birth in 1938, at the age of 5 years, 7 months and 21 days and is the youngest confirmed mother in medical history.   This world record is closely followed by a similar case in Russia.

Lina was brought to the hospital by her parents at the age of 5 because of an increasing abdominal size.  She was originally thought to have a tumor but her doctors determined she was in her seventh month of pregnancy.

Dr. Gerardo Lozado took her to Lima, the capital of Peru to have specialists confirm that Lina was pregnant.  Further examinations revealed a fetal heartbeat and an X-ray confirmed the pregnancy.

A month later, Lina gave birth to a baby boy by a caesarian section, necessitated by her small pelvis.

Her son weighed 5.9 lbs at birth and was named Gerardo after her doctor.  Gerardo was raised believing that Lina was his sister but found out later that she was his mother at the age of ten.

He grew up healthy but died in 1979 at the age of 40 of a diseased bone marrow.

Her case was reported in ‘La Presse Medicale,’ additional details stated, that her menstruation started at age 3 and her breast development started at age 4.   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 or the circumstances of her impregnation.

Lina’s father was temporarily jailed on suspicion of incest but he was released for a lack of evidence and authorities were never able to determine who fathered Lina’s child.

When Lina was further questioned-by police, she couldn’t give precise responses because of her young age.  Doctors stressed the importance of getting adequate care for the little girl.

Meanwhile, the story was picked up by ‘The New York Times,’ The Los Angeles Times,’ and ‘United Press International.’   Plans called for Lina, her son, and parents to travel to the United States (Chicago) to be examined by a five-man medical commission but there was no follow-up indicating the Medina family actually made the journey.

Lina would marry and have a second son, who is grown and currently resides in Mexico.   Lina and her husband currently live in the ‘Little Chicago” district of Lima.

Lina refused an interview with ‘Reuters,’ in 2002.

Today, Lina Medina is 75 years old and she still will ‘not’ divulge the identity of Gerardo’s father.

Tags: 5 Year Old Mom