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 '