FIVE-YEAR OLD MOTHER:

Lina Medina (pictured above) was born in Peru in 1933. She gave birth in 1938, at the age of 5 years, 7 months and 21 days and is the youngest confirmed mother in medical history.   This world record is closely followed by a similar case in Russia.

Lina was brought to the hospital by her parents at the age of 5 because of an increasing abdominal size.  She was originally thought to have a tumor but her doctors determined she was in her seventh month of pregnancy.

Dr. Gerardo Lozado took her to Lima, the capital of Peru to have specialists confirm that Lina was pregnant.  Further examinations revealed a fetal heartbeat and an X-ray confirmed the pregnancy.

A month later, Lina gave birth to a baby boy by a caesarian section, necessitated by her small pelvis.

Her son weighed 5.9 lbs at birth and was named Gerardo after her doctor.  Gerardo was raised believing that Lina was his sister but found out later that she was his mother at the age of ten.

He grew up healthy but died in 1979 at the age of 40 of a diseased bone marrow.

Her case was reported in ‘La Presse Medicale,’ additional details stated, that her menstruation started at age 3 and her breast development started at age 4.   There was never evidence that Lina Medina’s pregnancy occurred in any but the usual way but she never revealed the father of the child or the circumstances of her impregnation.

Lina’s father was temporarily jailed on suspicion of incest but he was released for a lack of evidence and authorities were never able to determine who fathered Lina’s child.

When Lina was further questioned-by police, she couldn’t give precise responses because of her young age.  Doctors stressed the importance of getting adequate care for the little girl.

Meanwhile, the story was picked up by ‘The New York Times,’ The Los Angeles Times,’ and ‘United Press International.’   Plans called for Lina, her son, and parents to travel to the United States (Chicago) to be examined by a five-man medical commission but there was no follow-up indicating the Medina family actually made the journey.

Lina would marry and have a second son, who is grown and currently resides in Mexico.   Lina and her husband currently live in the ‘Little Chicago” district of Lima.

Lina refused an interview with ‘Reuters,’ in 2002.

Today, Lina Medina is 73 years old and she still will ‘not’ divulge the identity of Gerardo’s father.

Additional Information:

The highest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is “69,” to the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev (1707-1782) of Shuya, Russia. She gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets. 67 of them survived infancy.

The world’s oldest father is 93 years old and hails from the town of Ararat in Western Virginia. Les Colley made history when his son Oswald was born in July 1992.  A non-drinker and non-smoker, Colley remained active until his death of pneumonia four months shy of his 100th birthday.

The youngest grandmother is Mum-Zi, a member of Chief Akkire’s harem on the island of Calabar, Nigeria.  She became a mother at age 8 and her daughter also delivered a child at age 8, making Mum-Zi a grandmother at age 16.

The youngest father in history is Sean Steard of Shambrook, England.  He became a father at the age of 12.   He was given the day off from school to be by the bedside of his teenage girlfriend Emma Webster when she gave birth. Sean vowed to stand by his girlfriend and baby, vowing, “I want to be there for the baby and to be part of it all.”

Dale Wright became a father at 14-years old; his son Steven also became a father at 14.   Wright became a grandfather at 29 years old.   Making him the youngest grandfather in history.

FAMILY WALKS ON ALL FOURS:

Five brothers and sisters who can only walk naturally on all fours (pictured above) are being hailed as an insight into human evolution after being found in a remote corner of rural Turkey.

Scientists believe that the family may provide invaluable information on how ‘Man,’ evolved from a four-legged hominid to develop the ability to walk on two feet, more than three million years ago.

The siblings aged 18-34, live with their parents and 13 other brothers and sisters.   They are believed to be mentally retarded; as a result of cerebellar ataxia-an underdevelopment of the brain.  Their mother and father are closely related, and are believed to have passed down a unique combination of genes resulting in the behavior.

The discovery of this Kurdish family in Southern Turkey last July has triggered a fierce debate.  Two daughters and a son have only ever walked on two palms and two feet, with their extended legs, while another daughter and son occasionally manage a form of two-footed walking.  The five can stand up for a short time with both knees and head flexed.

A documentary, “The Family That Walks On All Fours,” was broadcast on the BBC, earlier this year.

Source: “Timesonline.com,” and “National Geographic”