Vertus Wellborn Hardiman (March 9, 1922 – June 1, 2007) was a victim of a US government human radiation experiment at the age of five that left him with a painful skull deformity that forced him to cover his head for 80 years.
[2] In 1928, he attended Lyles Consolidated School where he and nine other children were severely irradiated during a medical experiment conducted at the local county hospital.
To get parental consent the experiment was misrepresented as a new therapy for the scalp fungus known as ringworm.
The radiation of the skull led to immediate symptoms but also to a severe progressive necrosis of the bone throughout his life.
All of the children treated with the radiation complained of the same symptoms: they all experienced headaches, suffered from dizziness, and felt extreme burning of the scalp.