Summary Of The Book The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

People tend to usually tremble when hearing the unpleasant word “Cancer”. Imagine being the one diagnosed with this horrible illness. More and more people in today’s society are struck with certain health issues such as diabetes, obesity, heart diseases and many more. Cancer is the at the top of this horrible chain of problems. Based on my experiences, someone that is diagnosed with cancer, does not realize how life can change so rapidly for them. Their whole lifestyle changes and they have a different outlook on life. Not until a person experiences a family member going through cancer, is he/she able to understand how important spending time with family really is.

When people think of cancer, many automatically murmur negative things. For example, death, Chemotherapy, hair loss, and other symptoms of feeling fragile. What people do not know is that even though you can see the patient suffering physically, their family is also being affected as well. Being a daughter of a mother with Colon cancer has affected me emotionally, spiritually, and virtually.

In both "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" and "The Lives of a Cell" they discuss cancer and how through the use of cells,we could create the right medicine. In "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" the author talks about the immortal cell line and how doctors took it without her permission. Henrietta's cells have made history in the advancement of not only cancer treatment but other illnesses.The doctors that cut out small fragments of Henrietta's cells didn't even ask for consent.Most people believe the doctors didn't see Henrietta's as a person that's why the doctors believed they did not need consent. Whether due to ethnic reasons we do not know, but we do know that Henrietta's cells still live on today and her body was not her own.

| | |they fully understand their diagnosis before it progresses, this enables them to talk to family and|

Racism has been affecting the lives of many African Americans for as long as we can remember. However, the many incidents of discrimination that have taken place at Johns

A conflict as defined my google is "a serious disagreement or argument" in the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the main character Henrietta faces several conflicts including external and internal. One external conflict that she faces is man vs. society when Henrietta isn't allowed in the white section of the hospital this is a man vs. society conflict. The author tells the reader that some hospitals were so strict that they would allow black patients to die in they're parking lot because they would rather let them die than treat them over a white patient. When Henrietta had to go to the hospital she was lucky enough that the doctors saw her soon however under usual circumstances the Lacks family stayed away from hospitals because

How would you feel if doctors took cells from your body to experiment on without you knowing? In the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” that is exactly what happened. Lack’s cells were the first to be observed, they were the first cells that could be divided multiple times without dying, which is why they were known as “Immortal.” Her cells were taken away from her by a surgeon called George Gey. In the tv show “Law and Order” there is an episode called “Immortal” which is a fictionalized episode. In the book Henrietta is the one the doctors take cells from but in the episode it’s a man called When Jerome Turner. This case is both a mystery and a murder comparing the episode with the book, What did they use their cells for?, What did the family of the victims get out of having cells taken out of a loved one? Did the victims ever find out they got cells out of them? And What kind of Medical impact did this bring to Henrietta and Turner?

Henrietta Lacks is a mother, wife, and scientific discovery. Henrietta began her life as a normal human, growing up on tobacco farms. In 1951, her life changed forever due to the fact that she acquired cancer. Henrietta had a total of six children, in which five of them were born before the discovery of her cancer. Henrietta’s cancer proved to be quite significant in the scientific field. Her cells were taken from her body before and after her death without the consent of herself or her husband, Day. Rebecca Skloot wrote the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to tell the story of Henrietta’s cells and her family. Her cells, called

My mom had to take my uncle Raymond to radiation every day for about 3 months, now she has to take him every three months, which affected her daily routine and how she planned her day. She also takes care of him a lot although he isn’t in the hospital or anything he isn’t very ill yet but from what I know I’m sure he will get sick. My uncle David was in his home when he passed away because he was on hospice, this effected everyone who lived in the house. When my uncle David passed away it was a very emotional time for the whole family, however it was kind of a happy moment as well because we knew he wasn’t suffering any more. My uncle David saw all his brothers and sisters before he passed some say that he was waiting to see them all before he said goodbye which could be true. Every person in a family who loses a family member has to deal with the emotional state of each other, some family members can handle death better than others so they are the strong ones in the situation. Cancer effects the whole family not just the patient.

It is hard enough for a cancer patient to deal with everything have going on after they are told they have cancer, but it is devastating to have to tell the ones you love most about your diagnosis. In Stuarts case, he had an

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood” –Marie Curie. Every year people are affected by cancer. Living with cancer is hard on all involved with any person that has cancer. They will need all the support they can get even if it’s just a phone call to say hi. Don’t feel sorry or pity the person. Instead do things that can cheer them up asking how they’re doing and ask if you can do anything for them. Many find going to support groups helpful to accept the fact they have or lost someone to cancer. The awareness does show favoritism toward to

When she died five years after first symptoms ,the cancer had spread throughout her body over those five years. My mother was very depressed

Since she got sick she had to pullback socially and physically. Most cancer patients loose that. There’s never really fully a chance to connect to people when you’re stuck in a hospital most of the time and their rest of the time you spend at home still hooked up to machines. Cancer requires you to grow mentally. They can’t be the angry kid who has a negative outlook on life, which is normally how they end up. They begin to wonder why this awful thing had to happen to them. They get angry at everyone and everything because life just had to go pick this out of everything that could’ve happened. They get snappy because constantly being hooked up to machines all the time and seemingly never ending pain can do that to

Knowing that you have a cancer is probably the worst thing to ever want to know in your whole life. For example, the doctors of Roger Ebert kept cutting parts of his body because cancer cells would get into them and destroy them. He couldn’t talk or even say a word for the rest of his life, yet when he want to speak they would give him a computer and a speaker next to him that say whatever he writes on his computer. He struggled his life before

People want to look presentable everywhere but when someone has cancer they will not look the same. As the body passes every treatment something different may be affected, one could lose their hair, experience dysfunctions in arms, or legs, pain in all parts throughout the body, tingling, burning, loss of balance, blurry vision, and the most frequent loss of breath. Appetite is constantly changing left and right, malnutrition, and not being able to keep anything down. (cancer.net) Body’s take a beating and these patients may take a while to accept that this is how they will look for as long as this life killing disease is inside of