Victims and their families of a US study that infected individuals with syphilis in Guatemala without their knowledge are suing Johns Hopkins . In a $ 1billion lawsuit , 750 plaintiffs claim the college approved and helped to plan the study , which ran one day . The victims were mostly orphans , children , prisoners , soldiers , prostitutes and mental patients . Marta Orellana was just 9 years old when one day at the orphanage she was ordered to go to the infirmary and infected with the disease . Federico Mesa was a solider who was forcibly injected with syphilis as a soldier and passed it along to his family . Marta Ruiz 's husband was infected , and she gave birth to one child who did not have a brain and another who is severely handicapped . Another woman , Victoria , claims she was born blind because he father was infected . Blindness , deformities , and death are just some of the problems babies born with congenital syphilis face . A lawyer for Johns Hopkins has called the suit 'baseless '
Victims and their families of a US study that infected individuals with syphilis in Guatemala without their knowledge are suing Johns Hopkins . In a $ 1billion lawsuit , 750 plaintiffs claim the college approved and helped to plan the study , which ran from 1945 to 1956 . The victims were mostly orphans , children , prisoners , soldiers , prostitutes and mental patients . Marta Orellana was just 9 years old when one day at the orphanage she was ordered to go to the infirmary and infected with the disease . Federico Mesa was a solider who was forcibly injected with syphilis as a soldier and passed it along to his family . Marta Ruiz 's husband was infected , and she gave birth to one child who did not have a brain and another who is severely handicapped . Another woman , Victoria , claims she was born blind because he father was infected . Blindness , deformities , and death are just some of the problems babies born with congenital syphilis face . A lawyer for Johns Hopkins has called the suit 'baseless '