The Medical Field Of Medicine

Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant on August 1st, 1920 to Eliza and John Randall Pleasant, in Roanoke, Virginia. It is uncertain how her name changed from Loretta to Henrietta. After her mother, Eliza, passed away giving birth to her tenth child in 1924 her father, John, distributed his children to relatives in Clover, Virginia. Henrietta ended up with her grandfather in a log cabin that previously had been slave quarters for a white ancestor’s plantation. Henrietta shared a room in the cabin with her cousin, David Lacks. In 1935, when Henrietta was 14 years of age, the cousins had their son Lawrence. Four years later the couple had Elsie their handicapped daughter, following her birth they proceeded to marry in 1941. In Maryland, where they moved at the urging of their cousin, they had three more children: David Jr., Deborah, and Joseph. At Johns Hopkins Hospital on January 29th, 1952, Physician Howard Jones quickly diagnosed Henrietta with cervical cancer. On October 4th, 1957, at the age of 31, Henrietta Lacks passed away at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

When the cells finally began growing in Gey’s lab it was seen as a huge advance in the world of science, seeing as no one had succeeded beforehand, this was a great accomplishment on his part. However, Henrietta was never told of this or how important her cells had become, she simply continued living without knowing that the cancerous cells inside her were continuing to grow despite receiving “treatment” from the doctors. Her only treatment was a small patch of radiation sewn directly into her cervix on the area where the tumor had appeared, after some tests showed that the tumor had disappeared she continued with her normal life of farming, raising her children, and enjoying life. Henrietta never complained about any side effects of the radiation, however, it eventually would make her infertile and cause her skin on her torso to turn black.

Black or Negro doctors were not common in America during the first half of the century: 500, or about 2.6%, of New York City’s 19,000 physicians were Negro in 1963 (Curtis 64). New York City and Chicago are major cities in the United States, they also are similar when it came to population. It is to say that since New York City only had a few Black Physicians during the time then Chicago reflected the same range of numbers when it came to their black physicians. In fact, African-Americans had only made up “3% of all professional workers in [New York City] in 1950”(Curtis 64). African American women were allowed to work in the medical professions but they were mostly limited to the nursing

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

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta Lacks. In the early 1951 Henrietta discovered a hard lump on the left of the entrance of her cervix, after having unexpected vaginal bleeding. She visited the Johns Hopkins hospital in East Baltimore, which was the only hospital in their area where black patients were treated. The gynecologist, Howard Jones, indeed discovers a tumor on her cervix, which he takes a biopsy off to sent it to the lab for diagnosis. In February 1951 Henrietta was called by Dr. Jones to tell about the biopsy results: “Epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I”, in other words, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Before her first radium treatment, surgeon dr.

Henrietta struggled with pain, bumps on her cervix, and abnormal bleeding. Henrietta was admitted into Johns Hopkins Hospital and was diagnosed with cancer in her cervix. Failing to mention her illness to her family, Henrietta began treatment at the hospital and her doctor was more than happy to help her due to his ulterior motive which was to use her

Due to severe pains, on January twenty-ninth, nineteen fifty-one, Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland where she was diagnosed with cervical cancer by Dr. Howard Jones. She was a patient in the “colored ward”. During her eight month long radiation treatments, doctors removed two dime-sized samples of her cancer-ridden cervix without ever informing her, asking her permission and letting her family know. Henrietta Lacks died of cancer a few months after her diagnosis on October fourth, nineteen fifty-one, at Johns Hopkins Hospital at the age of thirty-one, leaving behind her husband

Deborah Lacks was born on November 5th 1949, and was Henrietta and Day’s fourth child. She didn’t remember much about her mother because she died when Deborah was four. Still without even knowing her mother, Deborah Lacks never appreciated the unfairness her family had to go through because of the doctors at John Hopkins Hospital. She more than any member of Henrietta’s family, was angered by the unfairness. Skloot interviewed Deborah for a whole year, but it took a long time to gain her trust. She told Skloot she did not want to get rich, but she wished she had health insurance to pay for the drugs she took that her mother’s cells probably helped make. Deborah died in her sleep in 2009; she was 60 years

Henrietta Lacks felt defenseless and did not have to much of an option of giving the doctors permission of using her tissues. Because she was black and also poor Richard TeLinde did not consider to ask for her

In 1951 there was a young black lady who was named Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was a tobacco farmer in Clover, Virginia. Her mother died giving birth and her father moved the family to Clover, where the children were distributed among some of the close relatives. In January of 1951 she went to John Hopkins hospital, which was the only place close to her that treated black patients at the time. Lacks described a “knot” in her stomach that ended up being cervical cancer. During her treatments two samples from her

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

As Rebecca Skloot states in her book people thought that out of all of the terrible things that went on at Hopkins, the story of Henrietta Lacks to be the worst. Although, Hopkins was created in order to help African Americans and make them able to be treated properly at a hospital, there were many inequalities.

Henrietta Lacks was a “mother of five who died of cervical cancer at only thirty-one years of age” (Gabbay). When she passed away the doctors at John Hopkins asked her husband,

While today’s “patients [have] one thing going for them that Henrietta didn't: They [are] alive. And the dead have no right to privacy-even if part of them is still alive,” (Skloot 211) history’s ethical debate regarding medical racism remains a social issue. When patients experience racism, they may be unable to defend themselves if they are incapacitated by medical professionals. Due to patient negligence and bias, the health care provider’s poor treatment breaks the trust of minorities. As shown in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and treatment of Henrietta Lacks, doctors and researchers have failed to inform the participants correctly. Both occurrences highlight medical racism because of the historical maltreatment of minority groups. Now, many

Throughout the twentieth century, African Americans were stereotyped as dirty and contaminated. Though it is easy to imagine that lower income individuals may not have had money for cleaning supplies and might have been less concerned about cleanliness, those stereotypes was never true about African Americans. Thanks to this stereotype it then festered to justify laws segregating Black and White Americans under the false notion of cleanliness and disease prevention. Segregation statutes prevented Blacks and Whites from utilizing the same restrooms, drinking fountains, and swimming facilities under the assumption that Whites would be contaminated by shared use. Back in the day, Jim Crow was "just common sense." The medical establishment agreed, proclaiming that African Americans were carriers of disease, "a social menace whose collective superstitions, ignorance, and carefree demeanor stood as a stubborn affront to modern notions of hygiene." (Wailoo, 2006).