The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

1951) was a poor Southern African-American tobacco farmer whose cancerous cervical tumor was the source of cells George Otto Gey at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, cultured. These " immortal " cells remain " alive, " 60 years after her death, revolutionizing medical research. In her 2010 book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot documents the histories of both the cell line—called the HeLa cell line after the first two letters of her first and last names to protect her identity—and the Lacks family. Henrietta's husband , David Lacks, was told little following her death. Suspicions fueled by racial issues prevalent in the South at the time were compounded by issues of class and education. Members of the Lacks family were kept in the dark about the existence of the tissue line, and when its existence was revealed in a 1976 Rolling Stone article by Michael Rogers, family members were confused about how Henrietta's cells could have been taken without consent and how they could still be alive 25 years after her death. Skloot's book takes the reader on an incredible journey from the " colored " ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to the research laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells, to Henrietta's small, dying town of Clover, Virginia, to east Baltimore, where Henrietta's children and grandchildren live. The basic facts about the story of Henrietta Lacks are well documented. On February 1, 1951, Ms. Lacks visited Johns Hopkins because of a painful " knot " in her cervix and bloody vaginal discharge. After a biopsy, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The appearance of the tumor was unlike anything the examining gynecologist, Dr. Howard Jones, had seen. Prior to the treatment for the carcinoma, cells from the tumor were removed for research purposes without her knowledge or permission, which was standard procedure at that time. During her second visit eight days later, Dr. George Otto Gey obtained another sample of her tumor. These cells would eventually become the HeLa immortal cell line. In significant pain and without improvement, Lacks returned to Johns Hopkins Hospital on August 8 demanding admission and remained there until her death on October 4 at the age of 31. A subsequent partial autopsy showed that the cancer had metastasized throughout her body. Gey " discovered that [Henrietta's] cells did something they had never seen before: They could be kept …