Three-year-old Rose Marie Ryan played with her dolls on the porch of her Philadelphia home. It was July 4, 1935, and some boys who were shooting off firecrackers happened by. A firecracker exploded almost in contact with Rose Marie's back. She ran screaming into her house, and the boys, terrified, ran away.
Rose Marie's favorite aunt, Mrs. Rose McMullin, who had raised her from infancy and regarded her as her own, rushed the child to a hospital, where the burn was dressed, anti-tetanus vaccine injected. But the burn did not heal properly. Within a month it was infected. Rose Marie's temperature shot...