Concerned Parents Took Their Child to a Doctor Thinking She Had a Tumor Only to Find Out She Was 7 Months Pregnant

***This is a true story that was reported in medical journals as well as the 1939 edition of Time

PeruPhoto byIoana MohanuonUnsplash

According to reports, when Tiburelo Medina and Victoria Losea noticed that their 5-year-old’s belly was swelling, they became fearful that it was a tumor and quickly took her to the doctor where they received the shock of their lives. After examining the child, the doctor informed the stunned parents that she was 7 months pregnant.

Born in a remote Peruvian village in 1939, nobody knows for sure how the then 5-year-old Lina Medina got pregnant. Some suggest it was due to precocious puberty, a rare genetic condition that affects 1 in 10,000 children as this excerpt explains: “Boys with this condition will often experience a deepening voice, enlarged genitals, and facial hair. Girls with this condition will typically have their first period and develop breasts early on.”

There are conflicting reports as to whether she had her first period at 8 months or at 3 years of age, however, upon examination it was discovered that Lina Medina had the body structure of a much older girl.

On May 14, 1939, Lina Medina delivered a healthy boy child via c -section when she was just 5 years, 7 months, and 21 days of age. The boy was named Gerardo after the doctor who had first examined her.

Lina Medina never revealed the name of the father of her child probably because she was too young to know that what happened to her was sexual abuse. Although Lina Medina’s father was initially accused of raping his daughter, he was released from lack of evidence.

Even though she was offered monetary remuneration, Lina Medina avoided the limelight by refusing to speak about her experience. Instead, she went to work as a secretary for a doctor while putting her son through school.

At first, Gerardo believed he was Lina Medina’s younger brother and was treated that way until he was 10 when he first learned the truth that she was his mother. He died of bone disease at the age of 40. Per reports, Lina Medina remarried and moved to a poor neighborhood in Peru.