Belleville, NJ – Officials at Clara Maass Medical Center gathered at the Maass family gravesite in Newark’s Fairmount Cemetery to mark the 117th anniversary of the passing of Clara Louise Maass.
Maass, who was a native of East Orange, a nurse for the Army during the Spanish American War died on August 24, 1901, as a result of her voluntary participation in medical experiments related to the study of Yellow Fever.
According to published reports, Maass allowed herself to be bitten by infected mosquitoes for the second time. Researchers were hoping to show that her earlier case of yellow fever was sufficient to immunize her against the disease.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. Maass once again became ill with yellow fever on August 18th and died on August 24.
Reports say her death roused public sentiment and put an end to yellow fever experiments on human beings.
According to reports, June 19, 1952, Newark German Hospital (which had since moved to Belleville, New Jersey) was renamed Clara Maass Memorial Hospital, and it is now known as Clara Maass Medical Center.
INFORMATION SOURCE: Clara Maass Hospital Officials- Wikipedia