D
david
World's youngest mother
By Jude Webber
Reuters
Posted September 4 2002
LIMA · Lina Medina's parents thought their young daughter had a huge abdominal tumor. When shamans in their remote village in Peru's Andes could find no cure, her father carried her to hospital. Just over a month later, she gave birth to a boy.
Aged 5 years and 7 months, Lina's child was born by Caesarean section on Mother's Day, May 14, 1939, Medina made medical history. She is still the youngest known mother in the world.
At the time, Peru's government promised armfuls of aid. It never materialized.
Six decades later, Medina lives with her husband, Raul Jurado, in a cramped house in a poor, crime-ridden district of the Peruvian capital known as "Little Chicago." Now 68, she keeps to herself and has long refused requests to rake up the past. Gerardo, the son she delivered while still a child herself, died in 1979. He was 40.
But a new book, written by an obstetrician who has been interested in her case, has drawn new attention to Medina's story.
"The government condemned them to live in poverty. In any other country, they would be the objects of special care," said José Sandoval, author of Mother Aged 5.
Sandoval has raised Medina's case with the office of first lady Eliane Karp, and has asked the government to grant her a life pension.
"We're totally willing to help her," spokeswoman Marta Castañeda said. But Suni Ramos, of the social action department of Karp's office, said that before the government could grant her a pension or any other aid in the works -- such as kitchen and other household equipment -- officials needed to discuss Medina's needs with her.
One of nine children born to country folk in an Andean village in Peru's poorest province, Medina is thought to be the youngest case of precocious puberty, Sandoval said.
He said she had her first period at 2 1/2, became pregnant aged 4 years 8 months and that when doctors performed the Caesarean to deliver her baby, they found she already had fully mature sexual organs.
Her case is a medical textbook classic confirmed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
No one has ever established who fathered Medina's child, or confirmed she became pregnant after being raped.
Her father was temporarily jailed on suspicion of incest -- he was later released for lack of evidence.
Sandoval, who based his book on published information and some interviews with relatives, said news of the child mother-to-be drew instant offers of aid, including one worth $5,000 from a U.S. businessman, which was turned down.
More offers followed after Medina was transferred to a Lima hospital, where her fully developed 6-pound baby was born on May 14, 1939.
One offer of $1,000 a week plus expenses required Medina and her baby to be exhibited in a world fair in New York. Another, from a U.S. business that the family accepted in early June 1939, was for the pair to travel to the United States for scientists to study the case. The offer included a fund to ensure their lifelong financial comfort.
But within days, the state decreed that Medina and her baby were in "moral danger," and resolved to set up a special commission to protect them.
But Sandoval said: "It abandoned the case after six months. ... It did absolutely nothing for them."
Though physically mature, Medina -- who Sandoval said was mentally normal and showed no other unusual medical symptoms -- still behaved like a child, preferring to play with her dolls instead of the new baby. She stayed in the hospital for 11 months, returning to her family only after they won a Supreme Court ruling.
Medina married and in 1972 had a second son, who now lives in Mexico.
Medina appears to have turned her bizarre story into a taboo subject. "We just want to get on with our lives, that's it," said Jurado, adding he thought "absolutely nothing" of the fact his wife was the world's youngest mother.
He said the couple's main concern now, if the government's offer of aid was genuine, was to be granted the value of a property -- "more or less $25,000" -- that belonged to Medina. The government expropriated the parcel more than two decades ago. That house has now been destroyed and there is a road on the site.
"If the government really wants to help ... they should give us the value of our property," Jurado said.
By Jude Webber
Reuters
Posted September 4 2002
LIMA · Lina Medina's parents thought their young daughter had a huge abdominal tumor. When shamans in their remote village in Peru's Andes could find no cure, her father carried her to hospital. Just over a month later, she gave birth to a boy.
Aged 5 years and 7 months, Lina's child was born by Caesarean section on Mother's Day, May 14, 1939, Medina made medical history. She is still the youngest known mother in the world.
At the time, Peru's government promised armfuls of aid. It never materialized.
Six decades later, Medina lives with her husband, Raul Jurado, in a cramped house in a poor, crime-ridden district of the Peruvian capital known as "Little Chicago." Now 68, she keeps to herself and has long refused requests to rake up the past. Gerardo, the son she delivered while still a child herself, died in 1979. He was 40.
But a new book, written by an obstetrician who has been interested in her case, has drawn new attention to Medina's story.
"The government condemned them to live in poverty. In any other country, they would be the objects of special care," said José Sandoval, author of Mother Aged 5.
Sandoval has raised Medina's case with the office of first lady Eliane Karp, and has asked the government to grant her a life pension.
"We're totally willing to help her," spokeswoman Marta Castañeda said. But Suni Ramos, of the social action department of Karp's office, said that before the government could grant her a pension or any other aid in the works -- such as kitchen and other household equipment -- officials needed to discuss Medina's needs with her.
One of nine children born to country folk in an Andean village in Peru's poorest province, Medina is thought to be the youngest case of precocious puberty, Sandoval said.
He said she had her first period at 2 1/2, became pregnant aged 4 years 8 months and that when doctors performed the Caesarean to deliver her baby, they found she already had fully mature sexual organs.
Her case is a medical textbook classic confirmed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
No one has ever established who fathered Medina's child, or confirmed she became pregnant after being raped.
Her father was temporarily jailed on suspicion of incest -- he was later released for lack of evidence.
Sandoval, who based his book on published information and some interviews with relatives, said news of the child mother-to-be drew instant offers of aid, including one worth $5,000 from a U.S. businessman, which was turned down.
More offers followed after Medina was transferred to a Lima hospital, where her fully developed 6-pound baby was born on May 14, 1939.
One offer of $1,000 a week plus expenses required Medina and her baby to be exhibited in a world fair in New York. Another, from a U.S. business that the family accepted in early June 1939, was for the pair to travel to the United States for scientists to study the case. The offer included a fund to ensure their lifelong financial comfort.
But within days, the state decreed that Medina and her baby were in "moral danger," and resolved to set up a special commission to protect them.
But Sandoval said: "It abandoned the case after six months. ... It did absolutely nothing for them."
Though physically mature, Medina -- who Sandoval said was mentally normal and showed no other unusual medical symptoms -- still behaved like a child, preferring to play with her dolls instead of the new baby. She stayed in the hospital for 11 months, returning to her family only after they won a Supreme Court ruling.
Medina married and in 1972 had a second son, who now lives in Mexico.
Medina appears to have turned her bizarre story into a taboo subject. "We just want to get on with our lives, that's it," said Jurado, adding he thought "absolutely nothing" of the fact his wife was the world's youngest mother.
He said the couple's main concern now, if the government's offer of aid was genuine, was to be granted the value of a property -- "more or less $25,000" -- that belonged to Medina. The government expropriated the parcel more than two decades ago. That house has now been destroyed and there is a road on the site.
"If the government really wants to help ... they should give us the value of our property," Jurado said.
