The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the main character Henrietta Lacks died from cervical cancer in 1951. Fortunately a few months before she died, her doctor took a little sample of her cancerous cells. This is important because this was the first and most important types of human cells ever to live and produce endlessly. She is famous because her cells helped out scientists all over to make some of the most valuable discoveries in up to date medical history. The bad news about this was her cells were taken without any of her consent. After her daughter, Deborah, was born. Henrietta felt kind of odd when she felt something in her womb. She was too stubborn to see the doctor; therefore, she ignored it. She thought the pain was

She found a lump in there, so her and her husband rushed to the gynecologist doctor. The gynecologist, Howard Jones found out about her untreated medical conditions on her chart. She did not really treat those conditions because according to the book, she had no idea what anything was. She was not the brightest tool in the shed considering that she only had a 7th grade education and only worked at the farms her whole life. No one saw her tumor when she gave birth to her children; therefore, it grew at a fast pace. Originally Henrietta was born in 1920, the eighth child out of ten. Sadly, her mother died when Henrietta was only four years old. Her father took over the rest of the children and split them up to different family relatives. Henrietta lived with Tommy, his grandfather, and Day, her cousin. She ended up marrying him and having five children at an early age. On February 5, 1951, Howard Jones found out that Henrietta’s tumor is in fact infectious. She did not talk about it with anyone in her family. Instead, she told them that she just had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days for some medical treatments. Before the doctor started the treatment, the doctor started Henrietta’s surgery by cutting two little pieces

The tissues were taken into the lab so they can grow tremendously. Henrietta started her treatments and surprisingly, she was not showing any side effects. No one knew about her sickness. She thinks that she could go back and forth to Hopkins without anyone knowing. Sadie, her cousin, tells Rebecca about how Henrietta was the person that would brighten someone’s day and a lovely person to be around, even when she was ill. When Henrietta would go back to the hospital, her tumor was shrinking and looking a lot better than it was. No matter what, she had to go back on a daily basis. Her cervix was starting to look normal again, but it still was not right. Later on, Lacks came to a conclusion that the doctors failed to mention to her that she was infertile. After only three weeks of therapy, Henrietta got infected with gonorrhea from her husband. It made it worse from covering on radiation reactions. Henrietta was getting worn out day by day where she was just about to collapse on her way to her cousin’s house. The treatments made her skin from her