The Enduring Mystery Of Lina Medina, The World’s Youngest Mother
On May 14, 1939, an expectant mother was rushed into the operating theater of a hospital in the Peruvian capital of Lima. Her baby was on the way, but there was a complication that necessitated a cesarean section. Thankfully for everyone involved, the procedure was a success. A healthy boy, weighing 6 pounds, had arrived into the world. It was a happy end to a stressful day, but there’s an important detail we missed out here. The mother of this new baby was still a baby herself: she was five years old!
A bizarre but true tale
That’s an incredibly disturbing idea, but, bizarrely, it’s absolutely true. This is a story about a girl of just five years of age who fell pregnant and delivered a son. It doesn’t seem like this should even have been possible, but it was. Exactly what happened, though, remains a mystery to this day.
It all started in the spring of 1939, when Tiburelo Medina and Victoria Losea noticed that there was something wrong with their young daughter, Lina. Her belly had become engorged to a terrifying degree, and the prospect that she had a tumor seemed very real.
A medical marvel
Residents of a small, isolated village, Tiburelo and Victoria realized their little girl needed help elsewhere. They journeyed to the city of Lima, where Dr. Gérado Lozada analyzed the girl at the Hospital of Pisco. He initially thought poor Lina had a tumor, too, but his tests soon proved that theory wrong.
Dr. Lozada came to realize that Lina was, in plain terms, a medical marvel. Her medical reports claimed that she’d started having her period by at least the age of three! Her breasts, too, had already developed by this early stage in her life.
Solid records
And here comes the real kicker. Further testing demonstrated the presence of a second heartbeat inside little Lina. It wasn’t her own heart thumping away, but the alternative to that was quite unthinkable. Yet sure enough, an X-ray revealed the strange, almost incomprehensible truth: Lina was carrying a child.
Dr. Erica A. Eugster is a contemporary pediatric endocrinologist, and she’s assessed the medical records that pertain to this bizarre case. According to Dr. Eugster, the documentation seems solid. “There are published reports referring to it, so I don’t doubt it,” she told How Stuff Works.
The youngest mom on the planet
By the time she was assessed by Dr. Lozada, Lina was already heavily pregnant. She’d been carrying the baby for seven months by this time. One shudders at the thought of how uncomfortable that must have been for a person with a frame so small. Yet as unlikely as it seems, both Lina and her baby survived the pregnancy and the birth.
After her C-section had been completed and her boy welcomed into the world, Lina had officially become the youngest mom on the planet. She was five years, seven months, and 21 days old.
The big question
Medical experts were obviously flabbergasted by Lina’s case. Nobody had ever seen anything quite like it, and even the international press was sent into overdrive when it caught wind of what had happened. Journalists descended upon the poor family, all looking for a scoop and asking one major question: who was the father?
The family was steadfast in its silence. They wanted to be left in peace, refusing to give any interviews and trying to keep their daughter and the baby out of the spotlight. But their silence only fueled the speculation. The world wanted to know who had fathered the baby.
The mystery endures
The paternity question has never been answered, at least publicly. The family themselves may have known, but people following the story from the outside have always been left to ponder who he was. Given that some 85 years have since passed, it seems ever less likely that we’ll ever know the truth.
But let’s assess what we do know. Lina had been born in 1933 and grew up in an extremely impoverished community in rural Peru; she had eight siblings. Looking from the outside in, there was nothing to suggest how special a child she was.
Precocious puberty
When Lina’s pregnancy was discovered, her loved ones were obviously left in shock. This was an extraordinary thing to have happened, but, it turns out, similar cases had previously occurred to others. Lina was the youngest, but very young girls had fallen pregnant before.
How can this happen? Well, according to medical experts, it’s suspected that Lina lived with an extremely unusual genetic condition known as “precocious puberty.” As the name implies, this is when a child undergoes the usual bodily changes at a far earlier stage in life.
Hormonal changes
Puberty can begin at a young age, even in normal circumstances. Girls can expect to experience it between the ages of eight and 13, while boys might undergo it between nine and 14. It’s a process defined by physical and emotional alterations that marks a person’s transition from childhood into early adulthood.
Puberty is kicked off when something called the gonadotropin-releasing hormone is produced, which, in turn, stimulates the pituitary gland to generate more estrogen in the ovaries and more testosterone in the testicles.
Growing up fast
A lot of changes occur to a young person experiencing puberty. Their bones and their muscles begin to grow rapidly. Their bodies change shape. They might experience strong emotional reactions. Some might experience acne, or increased body odor. And, of course, they become capable of having babies.
All these things are normal parts of life, but in the case of precocious puberty, it all happens earlier than expected. If puberty happens before the age of eight in a female or before nine in a male, it’s considered precocious.
Central precocious puberty
According to medical experts, precocious puberty can be split into two separate categories. The first is central precocious puberty, which means puberty begins early, but for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. The process proceeds as it would normally, without complications.
A series of possible causes of central precocious puberty have been suggested. Maybe a tumor in the brain or the spinal cord has caused it? Perhaps exposure to radiation, or a host of genetic or hormonal conditions? Often no specific cause can be discerned.
Peripheral precocious puberty
Peripheral precocious puberty, on the other hand, is caused by the release of estrogen or testosterone at too early a stage in a child’s development. This process is instigated by issues with the pituitary gland, the adrenal glands, the testicles, or the ovaries.
Such issues could include a tumor in either the pituitary gland or the adrenal glands. A genetic condition known as McCune-Albright syndrome might also be the culprit. It’s even been claimed that exposure to ointments containing testosterone or estrogen could be to blame.
Rare, but not unheard of
Regardless of what specific type of precocious puberty is at play, the results are broadly the same. In males, the voice becomes deeper. Their genitals become larger, and facial hair appears. In girls, their breasts begin to develop and they begin having periods.
It’s the same as puberty in normal instances, except it happens early. It’s believed precocious puberty occurs in one child for every 10,000: rare, then, but not by any means unheard of. Girls are ten times more likely than boys to experience it.
A bleak theory
The reasons why a child might undergo precocious puberty are often very difficult to figure out. But there does appear to be one particular factor that might play into the process. It’s bleak and disturbing and makes for difficult reading.
Some studies have suggested that girls who have experienced sexual abuse have entered into puberty early. Early sexual contact, then, could be a factor in precocious puberty, which, obviously, is a pressing point when it comes to Lina’s case.
Impossible to ignore
Certain infections or genetic conditions might cause precocious puberty, but, in Lina’s case, it’s impossible to ignore the possibility that her condition was caused by sexual abuse. She had been, after all, undeniably abused. Someone had impregnated her when she was incredibly young.
Whether or not that abuse specifically is what caused her early onset of puberty is difficult to say. It’s an extremely upsetting thought, especially when we dig into her medical history and find that she was apparently pubescent as an infant!
Confusion in the records
There’s some confusion when it comes to Lina’s medical record. On the one hand, there are reports that claim she was just three years of age when she had her first period. That’s outlandish in itself, but there are other accounts that go even further!
Some records claim she was literally an infant when she had her first period. Eight months of age is the claim, which seems nigh-on impossible. But whether it was eight months or three years, either way she was remarkably young.
Extraordinarily rare
Speaking to How Stuff Works, Dr. Eugster was asked if the claims about Lina and her experience of precocious puberty are even possible. “We do see that, but it’s extraordinarily rare,” she replied. “In the past ten years, our hospital has diagnosed precocious puberty in four children ages two and under, but nothing like this notorious case.”
If Lina’s case is true, it would be truly unique. “One report claimed that Lina started menstruating at eight months,” Dr. Eugster said. “That’s the earliest case of precocious puberty on record and I’ve never seen anything like that.”
A 100,000-to-1 shot
We can say that Lina became pregnant at such a young age because of her experience of precocious puberty. But that, of course, is only part of the story. The question of paternity looms large over this entire story, and sadly no satisfactory conclusion has ever emerged: we just don’t know the truth.
One thing we can say, though, is that, unfortunately, the odds of the father being someone of a similar age to Lina are tiny. For a boy also experiencing precocious puberty to be the father is like a 100,000-to-1 shot, so we can’t avoid the fact that it’s likely an adult abused her.
Unable to respond
Lina never informed any doctor or police officer of who the person who abused her might have been. And, given her incredibly young age, there’s every chance she didn’t know herself. Her life must have been terribly confusing during that time.
Whenever she was asked about the father of her baby, Lina reportedly “couldn’t give precise responses.” Given the trauma that must have been involved, that’s maybe not a huge surprise.
The suspect
Lina’s dad Tiburelo was taken into custody, suspected of committing this terrible act. Before long, though, he was allowed to go and the charges against him were thrown out. There was no evidence at all to suggest he might have been responsible for his daughter’s condition.
Tiburelo was also adamant that he was innocent. He denied any wrongdoing in this horrendous case, and the authorities never found anything to suggest he was lying. Beyond the initial suspicion surrounding him, there’s no reason to believe it was him.
The festival
There is another theory, and, as you might expect, it’s very upsetting. According to a 1955 report in the Associated Press, the area in which Lina lived as a child was home to festive events. These occasions, though, could apparently get out of hand.
Reports of sexual assault during these festivities were “not uncommon,” according to the AP report. Is it possible that Lina fell victim to somebody during such an event? It’s possible, but, as always, we don’t know for sure.
In demand
While speculation was rife in the press about what had happened to Lina, answers were impossible to come by. But that wasn’t for lack of trying. The Peruvian press apparently offered Lina’s family a lot of money for the opportunity to speak with the child and to record and broadcast it. The family refused.
News outlets in the United States, too, were following the story closely. They also tried to gain access to Lina for an interview, but they, too, failed. Money was put on the table, but the family always said no.
An LA Times report
Even though an interview couldn’t be secured, the U.S. press reported on the story all the same. Here’s an extract from an article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in May 1939. Detailing the C-section, it read, “Dr. Hipolito Larrabure, head of the maternity hospital, who aided Dr. [Geraldo] Lozada [director of the Pisco Hospital] during the [Cesarean] operation, said Lina withstood the operation in excellent manner.”
“Medical circles here were astonished at the birth, which they believed without precedent. Dr. Larrabure said the case was ‘truly astounding’ and added that he hoped ‘some United States scientific foundation will send an investigator to Lima to observe the case and indicate the best manner of caring for the mother and child.’”
“The most amazing thing”
Because the family never gave an interview, rumors began to spread that they’d faked the story. Yet plenty of evidence exists to suggest the whole thing was true. Not long after the birth, The New York Times reported, “While in Lima Dr. [S.L. Christian, assistant surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service] examined Lina Medina, the Indian child-mother whose baby was born last May when the mother was about five years old.”
“He said that although there was some confusion as to whether the mother was five or six, there was no doubt of the authenticity of the case, which he described as the most amazing thing in his career as a physician.”
Never took advantage
The notion that the family faked the story just doesn’t hold up. In the 85 years since it surfaced, they never spoke out or tried to take advantage of the situation in any way. If they made it up, surely they would have tried to make some money out of it by selling the rights to do an interview? But they never did.
Besides, there are plenty of medical records that back up the story. There have even been photographs of Lina in circulation, though not very many. Of the two, only one of them was ever published anywhere outside of a medical journal, and the quality was very low.
Lina’s medical records are filled with notes written by different doctors who helped to treat her. Plus there are X-ray images that clearly show a fetus growing inside her womb. Evidence of blood tests confirming the pregnancy are also in the file.
All the records about Lina’s pregnancy have also been subject to peer scrutiny. There really is no reason, then, to believe that this was a hoax. Disturbing as it may be, this happened for real.
An enduring story
At no stage would Lina ever emerge from the shadows to speak publicly about what happened to her. Her silence has only added to the mystery, ultimately, which means her story has possibly lasted longer than it otherwise might have.
The fact nobody knows who the father is has ensured speculation has endured across the many decades since this story first became known. People are still pondering this tale today, which is a testament to its enduring interest.
A good level of medical care
It seems that Lina received a suitable level of medical care during her ordeal, which is among the few nuggets of good news within this story. The area she was from, particularly in those days, would have faced challenges, when it came to medicine.
The C-section was necessary to bring the baby into the world for understandable reasons. Lina may have been mature enough to bear a child, but her body was still tiny. A natural birth would have been dangerous to the mother.
Talk of the town
The child, when it arrived, was given the name of Gerardo. He was, by all accounts, perfectly healthy. It’s a remarkable thought that the product of such an unusual pregnancy made it through okay, but that seems to be what happened.
Mother and son were both soon discharged from hospital, and they went back to the village where Lina had so far lived her life. They must have been the talk of the town.
A psychologist’s visit
A 1941 report in The New York Times about Lina and her baby focused on a psychologist from the U.S. who had traveled to Peru to see Lina. The piece read, “Another passenger [on the liner Santa Clara, which was returning from South America] was Mrs. Paul Kosak, specialist in child education at Teachers College, Columbia University.”
“Mrs. Kosak is the only child psychologist who has been permitted to make studies of Lina Medina, the Peruvian girl who, two years ago, gave birth to a child at the age of five years. Mrs. Kosak said she gave a series of intelligence tests to the child, and that on the basis of this study she has no doubt the child’s age was given correctly.”
More of a baby brother
Even though it was clear to the psychologist that Lina really was the age that the reports claimed, it became clear that she was a clever girl. According to the report, Kosak noted, “Lina is above normal in intelligence and the baby, a boy, is perfectly normal and is physically better developed than the average Mestiza [a person of mixed European and indigenous non-European ancestry] child.”
The delicate issue of mother and son’s relationship was also addressed by Kosak. She noted, “[Lina] thinks of the child as a baby brother and so does the rest of the family.”
The lives of two children
An obstetrician by the name of Jose Sandoval has written a book about Lina’s pregnancy. According to him, it seems Lina lived a fairly normal life as a child after the birth. He noted how she was fond of playing with dolls; she apparently enjoyed that more than playing with her actual baby.
As for the boy himself, Gerardo, he wasn’t initially told the truth about his birth, for understandable reasons. Still, he had been quite young when he was informed that Lina was actually his mother and not his sister. He was only ten.
Normal and intelligent
Dr. Lozada, the medical professional who had first treated Lina, actually kept in touch with the family following the birth. In actual fact, he did far more than that. He helped to ensure Lina received an education, and he did the same for her son, too.
Speaking of Lina’s son Gerardo, who shared his name with the doctor who helped bring him into the world, Dr. Lozada once said, “Lina’s boy is normal and intelligent. He wants to take up electronics.”
A tragic death
About seven years before that tragedy, Lina had another son. He, apparently, grew up and moved to Mexico. Meanwhile Lina, according to reports, ended up moving to Lima at some point.
The husband
Lina’s life wasn’t ever in the spotlight following the shocking story of her pregnancy. Reports have come in dribs and drabs, and, if they’re to be believed, it seems she took a husband named Raul Jurado at some stage. According to Raul, he thinks the Peruvian government failed his wife while she was so young and vulnerable.
Raul apparently told the media, “She got no help that I know about. She thinks governments never deliver.” He went on to say her life in Peru had been defined by poverty.
Facing hardship
It’s difficult to piece together the story of Lina’s adult life. It seems she worked for Dr. Lozada for a time, serving as his secretary. But, if her husband Raul is to be believed, that job hadn’t been enough to drag her out of poverty.
If nothing else, all of this illustrates just how much Lina and her family valued their privacy. In spite of the hardships they faced, they never succumbed to the offers to speak about what happened: their peace was too important.
Lina’s life
We can only hope that Lina’s life, in spite of the immense challenges she was forced to endure, has been as happy as possible. Obviously it has entailed the premature loss of her son at the age of 40.
Hopefully they enjoyed a good relationship up until that tragic point. We don’t know whether Lina is alive today. If she is, she’d be an elderly woman of some 90 or 91 years, if her reported birth year of 1933 is accurate.
An enduring record
No other person has ever emerged anywhere in the world to claim the title of youngest ever mother from Lina. Unsurprisingly, at just five years of age, her record has endured: it’s to be hoped it’s one that will never be surpassed.
As for the mystery of the father, we’ll likely never know who it was. And, perhaps, that is how it should be. Lina and her family wanted their privacy, and they should be entitled to it.
“Condemned to live in poverty”
The only thing that should, perhaps, be discussed today is how the government of the time failed Lina. While the medical care she received was apparently very good, the governmental response was extremely poor. The obstetrician Jose Sandoval wrote about exactly that in his book about Lina.
“The government condemned them to live in poverty,” he claimed. “In any other country, they would be the objects of special care… We still have time to repair the damage to her. That’s my fundamental objective.”
A barely credible tale
This is a story that really beggars belief. Lina’s early life was horrendously difficult, and she went through something no child ever should. There’s no evidence to suggest she ever received justice for what happened to her.
All we can hope for is that her relationship with her child was a good one. It was likely that they looked at each other as siblings more than anything, but hopefully they at least shared a strong bond.