This story is truly a medical marvel — one that is surely hard to believe.
Lina lived in a small Peruvian village located 7,400 feet up in the mountains — the nation’s poorest region.
Born in Ticrapo, Peru, to silversmith Tiburelo Medina and Victoria Losea, Medina was brought to a hospital by her parents at the age of five years due to increasing abdominal size. She was originally thought to have had a tumor, but her doctors determined she was in her seventh month of pregnancy. Dr. Gerardo Lozada took her to Lima, Peru, to have other specialists confirm that Medina was pregnant.
Contemporary newspaper accounts indicate that interest in the case developed on many fronts. The
San Antonio Light newspaper reported in its July 16, 1939, edition—in anticipation of the girl's expected visit to U.S. university scientific facilities—that a national Peruvian obstetrician/midwife association had demanded that the girl be transported to a national maternity hospital; the paper quoted April 18 reports in the Peruvian paper
La Crónica stating that a North American filmmaking concern sent a representative "with authority to offer the sum of $5,000 to benefit the minor [in exchange for filming rights] ... we know that the offer was rejected."The same article, reprinted from a Chicago paper, noted that Lozada had made films of Medina for scientific documentation and had shown them around April 21 while addressing Peru's National Academy of Medicine; on a subsequent visit to visit Lina's remote hometown, some of the baggage carrying the films had been dropped into the river while crossing "a very primitive bridge": "Enough of his pictorial record remained, however, to intrigue the learned savants."
A month and a half after the original diagnosis, Medina, at the age of 5 years and 7 months, gave birth to a boy by a
caesarean section on May 14, 1939, necessitated by her small
pelvis, which made her
the youngest known person in history to give birth. The surgery was performed by Lozada and Dr. Busalleu, with Dr. Colareta providing
anaesthesia. When doctors performed the caesarean to deliver her baby, they found she already had fully mature sexual organs from
precocious puberty. Her case was reported in detail by Dr. Edmundo Escomel in the medical journal
La Presse Médicale, including the additional details that her
menarche had occurred at eight months of age, in contrast to a past report stating that she had been having regular periods since she was three years old (or 2½ according to a different article). The report also detailed that she had prominent
breast development by the age of four. By age five, her figure displayed pelvic widening and advanced
bone maturation.
Medina's son weighed 2.7 kg (6.0 lb; 0.43 st) at birth and was named Gerardo after her doctor. Gerardo was raised believing that Medina was his sister, but found out at the age of 10 that she was his mother
The girl’s parents initially thought their daughter was suffering from a massive abdominal tumor, but after being examined by doctors in Pisco, Peru, they discovered she was eight-months pregnant. Dr. Gerardo Lozada found that Lina’s mammary glands and sexual organs were fully developed.
When her parents were questioned about the pregnancy, Lina’s mother informed the doctor that she had been having a period since the age of three. However, upon further examination, Dr. Lozada realized her menstruation began at eight months.
Medina has never revealed the father of the child nor the circumstances of her impregnation. Escomel suggested she might not actually know herself by writing that Medina "couldn't give precise responses". Although Lina's father was arrested on suspicion of
child sexual abuse, he was later released due to lack of evidence, and the biological father who impregnated Lina was never identified. Medina's son grew up healthy and died in 1979 at the age of 40.
In young adulthood, Medina worked as a secretary in the Lima clinic of Lozada, who gave her an education and helped put her son through high school.
[8] Medina later married Raúl Jurado, who fathered her second son in 1972. As of 2002, they lived in a poor district of Lima known as "Chicago Chico" ("Little Chicago"). She refused an interview with
Reuters that year, just as she had turned away many reporters in years past
Throughout the years, many people have called her story a complete hoax, however, X-rays, photos, and doctors’ documentation are proof that this really did happen. We can definitely understand the hesitation because we cannot believe how she was able to carry her baby full term at such a young age.
Although the case was speculated as a
hoax, a number of doctors over the years have verified it based on
biopsies,
X rays of the fetal skeleton
in utero, and photographs taken by the doctors caring for her.
There are two published photographs documenting the case. The first was taken around the beginning of April 1939, when Medina was seven-and-a-half months into pregnancy. Taken from Medina's left side, it shows her standing naked in front of a neutral backdrop. This is the only published photograph of Lina taken during her pregnancy. The other photograph is of far greater clarity and was taken a year later in Lima when Gerardo was eleven months old.
In 1955, except for the effects of precocious puberty, there was no explanation of how a five-year-old girl could conceive a child. Extreme precocious puberty in children aged five or under has only been documented with Medina. It is treated by suppressing
fertility, which preserves growth potential and reduces the social consequences of full sexual development in childhood.
Gerardo led a healthy life until 1979, when he died from bone marrow disease at the age of 40.
