In the spring of 1939, parents from a remote village in Peru noticed that their 5-year-old daughter Lina Medina had grown upside down. Tiburrello Medina and Victoria Losia feared that the ongoing inflammation was a sign of a stomach tumor. They took their young daughter to a doctor outside the family home in Lima, Ticarapo.
Shock and Horror News
To their shock and horror, the doctor discovered that their daughter, Lina Medina, was seven months pregnant. Just six weeks later on May 14, 1939, Medina gave birth via c-section to a healthy, six-pound baby boy. At 5 years, seven months, and 21 days of age, she became the youngest girl known to have given birth.
At the time, her case stunned pediatricians and received national attention that she and her family never wanted. Medina never disclosed who the father was, and to date, he and his family have stayed away from the country.
A Case of Precocious Puberty
Born on Sept. 23, 1933, in one of the poorest villages in Peru, Lina Medina as one of nine children. And even though her pregnancy came as a disturbing shock to her loved ones (and the public), the idea that a 5-year-old child could get pregnant wasn’t entirely unthinkable to pediatric endocrinologists.
It affects about one in every 10,000 children. Roughly 10 times more girls than boys develop this way.
Lina Medina: Pregnant At Five
Early puberty is a good explanation for Lina Medina’s pregnancy, but apparently it doesn’t explain everything. So, She was, after all, a child herself. So somebody had to get her pregnant. And given the 100,000-to-1 odds against it, that person probably wasn’t a precociously pubescent 5-year-old boy.
Medina never told her doctors or officials who the father was or under what circumstances the attack would have to occur in order for her to become pregnant. Due to his young age, he may not even know himself. Therefore, Tiburelo, Medina’s father who worked as `a local silversmith, was briefly arrested for suspected child rape. However, he was eventually released and the charges against him dropped when no evidence or witness statements could be found to hold him. Tiburelo strenuously denied ever having had sex with his own daughter.
