Analysis of The Inmortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is a story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks, but many people refer to her as HeLa. Henrietta was the wife of David Lacks and a mother to her children. Henrietta noticed a knot on her cervix one day and became concerned. After a while Henrietta decided to seek medical attention. Henrietta got examined at John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, which was when Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951. Henrietta underwent many painful x-ray therapy and radium treatments to get rid of the cancer, during these treatments some tissue from Henrietta’s tumor was removed without informing her or her family. The tissue was taken to George Grey, who was John Hopkins head in the Tissue Culture

Then it was transferred to George Gey’s lab, where they would cultivate it and attempt to grow new cells from the sample, however, there was not much hope for the sample, as they all eventually died within days, sometimes even hours. Henrietta’s cells changed this, after multiple days of being cultivated and still living, Gey began to realize that he had discovered something amazing, and he slowly started to share his discovery with the world.

In 1951, Henrietta was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Doctors at John Hopkins took samples from her cervix and tried to keep them alive. After Henrietta Lacks died at the age of thirty-one, the doctors asked her husband if they could do a biopsy on her and he said no but then changed his mind. They

This is a book that tells a story of an African-American woman and the Scientific journey of her cells, it also goes in depth about how her daughter came to find out about her immortal cells. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is divided into three layers and each part discusses different event that happened during the course of Henrietta’s life, death, and immortality. If the story was written in a chronological order would it had made it easier or harder to understand the more important things?

Life. Life is a powerful word that is used in many situations and still make sense. In this case, life is used to tell the story of a woman’s life. The first chapter of the book paints an exceptionally vivid image of Henrietta running into Johns Hopkins Hospital on a rainy day in January of nineteen fifty-one. The second chapter steps back from Henrietta’s initial exam to nineteen twenty-one, the year Henrietta was born. The chapters in this section combine elements from Henrietta’s life, the entirely separate life of

The Henrietta who kept her cancer a secret for as long as she possibly could and only told Sadie, Margaret, and Day that she was sick because she did not want to worry anyone (Skloot 65). The Henrietta who treasured and unconditionally loved her children, more specifically the quality of life of her children. Henrietta and her daughter, Elsie's, relationship reveals more about Henrietta than any scientific journal ever could. Instead of putting Elsie in Crownsville State Hospital, formerly known as the Hospital for the Negro Insane, and walking away forever, ridding herself of the "burden" of a child like Elsie, Henrietta continued to make time for her by visiting her once a week (Skloot 45). I wholeheartedly believe that when Henrietta died, the greatest treasure she was worried about was her children. Rightfully so, though, as her children ended up facing the horrid abuse of Ethel and Galen when Day decided to no longer raise his own children (Skloot

Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. She was an African American farmer with five kids and a husband. One day, Henrietta felt a knot on her cervical area. She went to John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, were the doctors removed a small sample of tissue from her tumor and treated her with radiation. A scientist, George Gey, used the sample to create the first line of immortal cells. On October 4, 1951, Henrietta passed away from cervical cancer at the age of 31. Her cells on the other hand didn't. Henrietta’s cells, better known today as the HeLa cells, became the first and most important line of human cells ever to survive and multiply indefinitely in the laboratory environment (“Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”). This is where the story began. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

The Lacks family would not let her talk to Deborah at first thinking she would have another stroke at the mention of the cells. Because of the stroke doctors had her on an assortment of pills that she could barely afford and would go on and off of them as her insurance changed, “when the Ambien ran out she stopped sleeping till she got more.”(255). When Deborah discovered her sister was put in an asylum and died there shortly after her mother died she, “broke out in hives – red welts covering her face, neck, and body, even the soles of her feet.” (231) the medical condition of Deborah makes the reader consider the story of the Lacks family and feel empathy for them and the stress they went through learning about the theft of Henrietta’s cells. In the opening of the book there is a passage titled Deborah’s voice in it she describes her understanding of what HeLa cells have done and what she thinks of those accomplishments at the end

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, tells the story of how a young black woman died from cervical cancer and that her cells were harvested and grown in a laboratory without her consent. Shortly before her death, a doctor removed a small section of her cancer cells for testing and for research purposes. These cells would become the first and most important line of human cells to survive and continually grow in the laboratory environment. Her story highlights how African American people were exploited, treated differently than whites and were used for experimentation.

In the book, Deborah obtains information about her mother by reading various articles regarding the HeLa research. This made her to conclude that her mother had suffered from the experiments that were carried out on her cells. The author also describes Deborah travelling to Clover, VA, the place where her mother grew up. Because of anxiety, Deborah has decided to talk with her relative and try to obtain the facts about the immortal calls. In this regard, the relative explains her that the cells of her mother have developed to be heavenly bodies and immortal angels.

Henrietta was a mother of 5 children, Lawrence, Elsie, David Jr.,Deborah, and Joseph who were left behind to their father after Henrietta died. Elsie was diagnosed with syphilis and epilepsy much earlier in life which caused her to not be able to hear or speak. She was later admitted into the psychiatric Crownsville Hospital for people who were insane and her younger siblings didn’t even know she ever existed until later. Day had his cousin Galen and wife Ethel move in with him after Henrietta died to help take care of the children which ultimately ended up being the sad fate for the children. The oldest, Lawrence, moved in with his girlfriend Bobbette, Elsie died isolated in Crownsville Hospital, leaving Deborah to be sexually abused by Galen and Joseph to be separated from the rest of the family and physically abused. The Lacks siblings later find out about the HeLa cell discovery of their mother from a scientist from the National Cancer Institute. After finding everything out, the Lacks family felt incredibly betrayed given that the doctors and Johns Hopkins hospital were both profiting from the discovery while they were all living in

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of how the world famous HeLa cell line was created and the medical, legal, and cultural issues surrounding it all. This book doesn’t just cover how scientists used these cells to create life saving vaccines and treatments, it shows us the woman behind these extraordinary cells and what she and her family have went through. The woman behind these ever prevalent cells is Henrietta Lacks. At the time she was a poor, African

The story, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot starts off with Rebecca Skloot’s narration, of the first time she had heard of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks had cervical cancer but technically died of uremic poisoning. When she was treated with radium, they took a sample of her cells and sent it to a scientist by the name of George Gey. Gey wanted to find cells that didn’t stop multiplying even after they were out of the body, and Henrietta’s cancer cells were the 1st known cells in history to fit that description. After Gey found out about Henrietta’s immortal cells, he sent them to scientists all over the world. Jonas Salk used Henrietta’s cells to find the cure for polio. Meanwhile Henrietta’s children didn’t know about any of this, mostly because almost everyone thought that the HeLa cell line stood for Helen Lanes.

The cells taken from the biopsy of Henrietta’s tumor were given to a researcher, George Gey, and her cells became a huge medical discovery because they could survive and multiply indefinitely. These cells were then named HeLa cells. HeLa cells led to many revolutionary medical advances

Gey found that Henrietta cells were different than the usual cells. It was never happening before when Gey found a cell that grows with mythological intensity in the lab. Usually, every cell will die or survive for a while in the lab. “However, the Henrietta’s cancer cells seemed unstoppable as long as they had food and warmth” (Skloot 65). This was the first immortal human cells that they called HeLa. This name came from the first two letters of the name Henrietta Lacks.