When Vertus Hardiman’s parents signed the consent form that allowed their five-year-old son partake in a “new form of ringworm treatment,” they had no idea they were signing their lovely son into misery.
In 1928, Hardiman and nine other children were taken from their small Indiana community to a nearby hospital and given high-dose radiation which turned out to be the new cure for ringworm that their parents were made to believe.
After their time in the hospital, they all complained of headaches followed by complete loss of the hairs on their scalp.
Vertus Hardiman was so irradiated that he developed a big open wound on his scalp that extended to his skull. He wore wig for the rest of his life to cover the incurable wound.
The wound later transformed and became cancerous leading to his death at the age of 85.