Lina was born
on September 23, 1933, in Peru. She came from what seemed to be a humble
family, her mother by the name of Victoria Losea who was a house-maker and her
father by the name of Tiburelo Medina who was a silversmith.
Lina Marcela
Medina is confirmed to be the youngest mother in history, giving birth at the
young age of 5 years and 7 months old.
At the age of
5 and 6 months, her parents noticed an abnormal abdominal swelling which at
first sight they thought it could have been some sort of tumour but would have
never guessed that upon diagnosis from Dr. Gerardo Lozada, Lina was actually 7
months pregnant. At first, the parents didn’t even imagine that it is possible
to be pregnant at that age and took Dr. Gerardo for a fool. Therefore they have
taken Lina to a specialist which actually confirmed the original diagnosis.
Upon hearing
this news, the doctor called the police which immediately arrested Lina’s
father as the first suspect. After a week of interrogation, the police had to
let Tiburelo go as they didn’t have enough evidence to prove that the father
had impregnated his own child.
The second
suspect was Lina’s cousin who apparently had mental difficulties which made the
authorities think he would be capable of such a horrific act, but once again
with no evidence, the police were not able to prosecute him as the father of
Lina’s child.
The
authorities tried to get some answers from Lina in the presence of her mother
to see if she remembered anyone harming her or raping her. With the child
extremely confused about everything that was happening to her, the police once
again had no lead to a potential suspect or suspects. With no further evidence,
nor leads, the authorities dropped the case.
In an article
about the case from 1955, the author Luis Leon states that many of the remote
villages from Peru held regular “religious festivals” that lead to group sex or
even rape which did include minors or children of such young ages as Lina. In
the absence of a more plausible theory on Lina’s case, it is believed that she
was in fact raped at one of these strange and sick festivals.
Due to her
young age and undeveloped body for a pregnancy, the only way for her to give
birth to the baby was via a cesarean section, this implied many risks that
could have put Lina’s life at risk.
When Lina was
8 months pregnant and her parents were pressured by the media, her mother did
confess that Lina started her menstruations at the age of 3. It was later found
out by specialists that she suffered from a condition known as precocious
puberty, meaning that her sexual organs would developed at a very young age,
Glands that secrete growth and sex hormones begin to function abnormally early
in life.
The Doctors
at the maternity knew that there was a high chance for the baby to have major
difficulties as Lina’s young organism was thought at the time to be
undeveloped, therefore not able to offer the baby the nutrition required when
developing during the 9 months of pregnancy. With a miracle, the baby was born
healthy at a perfect weight of 2.7 kilograms and coincidentally on mother’s day
14th of May, 1939.
The child was
named Gerardo Medina, a name inspired by Lina’s doctor who helped her through
labour . The father’s identity still remains a mystery even to this day. What
is sure is that Lina was another innocent young victim of sexual abuse. What is
more horrifying is that this is still happening to this day.
Lina’s
parents tried to offer her child and their grandchild a normal childhood by
explaining to them as they grew up the relation between the two. It’s admirable
that Lina’s parents protected her privacy and did not use Lina’s unique
condition for financial gain.
Many
researchers and doctors took a big interest in Lina’s case and therefore wanted
to study her as well as her child. Lina’s parents once again refused as they
wanted to offer Lina a normal childhood.
Lina is still
alive and well today, at the proud age of 87. Not much is known about Gerardo
Medina, nor throughout the last decades as the public had respected the privacy
of the Medina family.
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