The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta and Day (her husband) Lacks

Have you ever wondered where all the vaccines you get at the doctor's come from? You can thank Henrietta for that. I read the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot which was about a woman named Henrietta who had cervical cancer. Henrietta was treated in Johns Hopkins during the 1930s when there was segregation in America. Henrietta was african american so many people thought she wasn't given as good a treatment as white people at the time. The doctors, while performing a surgery on her cancer, took a sample of it so it could be reproduced. This sample was sent to George Gey who tried to reproduce it. It was successful and the cells kept reproducing, and they still are today.  Many discoveries, including the polio vaccine, DNA discoveries, and bomb effects, are thanks to Henrietta's cells. Her cells were also cancerous so many cancer studies were performed on them that helped further our knowledge on how cancer becomes cancer etc. This medical miracle was unknown to the Lacks family until one of Henrietta's daughters overheard her friend talking about a woman's cells that have made many scientific discoveries. This discovery started a medical scandal that Henrietta's sons will never give up on. However Henrietta's only daughter, Deborah, wished to find out more about her mother and sister's deaths (her sister was put in Crownsville Hospital Center for epilepsy in 1955) looked toward Rebecca Skloot, the author, for help. She and Deborah went on a search for the information they both dearly desired. I found The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to be a very interesting book because I found that the book mixed together human interest and science all in one. The book described many scientific discoveries without making it boring or tedious to read. This is one of my favorite books, I highly recommend it.

Hela Cells