Lina Medina became pregnant at 5 years old, and is recorded as the youngest person ever to become pregnant. From Peru, Lina was brought to a hospital by her parents fearing she had a tumor growing inside of her. The doctors, however, doctors determined she pregnant – seven months pregnant. Dr Gerardo Lozada, the original doctor on the case, brought Lina to several other specialist to confirm, and they did. On May 14, 1939. Medina gave birth to a boy by a caesarean section.
How could that be? When doctors performed the c-section delivery of the baby, they discovered Lina had fully mature sexual organs, a rare condition known as precocious puberty. Her case, stunning to say the least, was reported by Dr. Edmundo Escomel in the medical journal La Presse Médicale.
Details of the pregnancy and birth reported that Medina’s son weighed 2.7 kg (6.0 lb; 0.43 st) at birth. His given name was Gerardo, named after her doctor. Gerardo grew up believing that Medina was his sister, but at 10-years-old learned Medina was his mother.
Lina’s father was arrested on suspicion of child sexual abuse. For lack of evidence, he was released and the biological father was never known. Gerardo grew up healthy and died at the age of 40 from what was suspected to be bone cancer or a bone marrow infection.
Although this case has, in the past, been speculated as a hoax, doctors have validated through factual evidence from X-rays and biopsies that it is, in fact, true.