World's Oldest Mother, 70, Says She's Dying 18 Months After Giving Birth

The woman believed to be the world's oldest mother has revealed she is dying just 18 months after giving birth to her first child.

Rajo Devi Lohan says she is suffering from complications after her IVF pregnancy and is "too weak to recover," the Daily Mail reports.

News of a dying Lohan comes just short of year after the death of the former world's oldest mom, Maria del Carmen Bousada of Spain. Bousada died in July of last year at age 69, leaving behind 2-year-old twins. Bousada had lied to a U.S. fertility clinic in order to get pregnant, telling them that she was 55 -- the cut off age for in vitro fertilization -- rather than 67 at the time of her fertility treatments.

Despite her present condition, Lohan, who gave birth to her daughter Naveen in November 2008, says she doesn't regret having a child

"I dreamed about having a child all my life," she told the Daily Mail. "It does not matter to me that I am ill, because at least I lived long enough to become a mother."

Lohan, now 72, and her husband Balla, 73, are poor farmers from the village of Alewa in Haryana state, north of Delhi.
The two, who had been married for nearly for 54 years, were desperate to have a child and took out loans to pay for the nearly $3,000 IVF treatment.

Lohan is in so much pain that her sister Omi, 60, has moved in to help look after Naveen.

"Omi brings Naveen to kiss me and I tell her I love her very much," Lohan told the newspaper. "Her first word was "Ma". I was so happy to hear that."

In related news, 66-year-old Bhateri Devi this week became the oldest woman in the world to have triplets. She had IVF at the same clinc as Lohan -- the National Fertility & Test Tube Baby Centre in Hisar, which is also in Haryana.

Dr. Kent Holtorf, an endocrinology specialist for AOL Health's Medical Advisory Board, said he doesn't think the IVF treatments are directly responsible for Lohan's impending death, but may have had an indirect role.

"Could it ... [hasten] her death? Certainly," he said. "There's certainly a significant risk when someone like this is getting pregnant. Putting that much stress on the body with someone of that age is certainly risky at best."


Worlds Oldest woman