The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a novel written by Rebecca Skloot meant to be a memoir of one of the biggest breakthroughs in medical history and the woman that influenced it. Instead of immortalizing her cells like every other publishing company under the quasi-ambiguous name, HeLa, Skloot decided to give the medical miracle a name and tell her story. From life, death, and hereafter, Skloot has told the story of a woman that would have gone forgotten in history, along with the ethical mishaps along the way. The story begins with Skloot telling Henrietta’s life story and her sickness. As it turns out, the cells that have been deemed immortal came from an agent of death. Henrietta grew up as a poor tobacco farmer, but that never kept her from spreading her joy and happiness throughout her hometown, Clover. She would marry David “Day” …show more content…
However, Henrietta discovers a “knot” in her vaginal area and makes an appointment to Johns Hopkins, and is diagnosed with cervical cancer. However, this lump is different. Jones, a seasoned gynecologist, had never seen cervical cancer lesions quite like Henrietta’s. The lump is “like grape Jello… [and] bled at the lightest touch” (17) It later is revealed that the cancer comes from the human papillomavirus (HPV). Henrietta then gets treated for her cancer, and is treated like any other woman with cervical cancer at the time with a form of primitive cancer treatment. In surgery, the doctor would put a tube full of radium in and around Henrietta’s cervix and vagina and let it sit there for some time, and took some samples from her vagina and tumor. While results were promising for some time, Henrietta’s tumor came back with a vengeance. The tumors blocked her urethra and “nearly replaced her kidney’s bladder, ovaries, and uterus” (90). Her pain was so great that even strong pain killers like morphine and pure alcohol injected
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
400 Words | 2 PagesIn Rebecca Skloot’s novel “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” , she informs readers about “HeLa” aka Henrietta and also about her journey discovering the many traits of Lack’s past . Henrietta Lacks , known in the medical world as “HeLa” died in 1951 due to cervical cancer . She experienced frequent bleeding from her genital parts , due to a tumor that was in her womb . She wasn’t known for going to the doctor whenever she had a health problem , but in the book Skloot said that HeLa explained the tumor as a “ lump in her in womb” and had a feeling that she needed a doctors help. After being looked at by her doctor and being tested for possibly having syphilis , she was redirected to a gynecologist .
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
611 Words | 3 PagesHannah Henriques ANT Dr. Voelker September 28, 2017 Henrietta Lacks Book Review In Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot documents the years surrounding her research of Henrietta Lacks, a woman known to most of the world as HeLa. Henrietta lived and died a poor tobacco farmer from the south, living and working on the same farm as her enslaved ancestors. But little did Henrietta know that her cells would change the course of medical research and history forever.
Immortal Cells: Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
386 Words | 2 PagesI was drawn into this book since it gave me so many opportunities to learn more about science. Even though some of the descriptions of Henrietta’s cervical cancer were graphic, it helped me learn more about biology which is what I’m interested in. For example when it said “They cut HeLa cells apart and exposed them to endless toxins, radiation, and infection. They bombarded them with drugs, hoping to find one that would kill malignant cells without destroying normal ones.” (58), I learned how they used Henrietta’s cells to help millions of
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
522 Words | 3 PagesIn the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the author Rebecca Skloot brings up the topic of education various times throughout these seven chapters and thus helps the reader understand what a big discovery it was when Henrietta cells were found to be immortal and the medical revolution it brought. Henrietta Lacks was born August, 21, 1920 as a Loretta Pleasant and is unknown how she became Henrietta Lacks according to Skloot(pg.18) and in the distance future she would eventually visit Hopkins Hospital and inevitably starts the process of how her cells created a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. January, 29th, 1951 Henrietta went into Hopkins Hospital for a knot she felt in her womb and thus was examined by her doctor Howard Jones and was diagnosed with cervical cancer, in the past year Henrietta knew something was wrong with her but was too scared to go to the hospital for fear they would take her womb but eventually after she had her fifth child Joe that year she went to her local doctor but was referred to Hopkins after her knot tested negative for syphilis. Only a few days later after her visit to Hopkins; Jones got her tests and resulted in that she had Epidermoid Carcinoma of the cervix ,
Henrietta Lacks Book Report
682 Words | 3 PagesA non-fiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is about an African American woman who developed cervical cancer. While trying to diagnose her illness Johns Hopkins Hospital, got a sample of her tumor and sent to the culture lab. Inside the lab, George Guy harvests the cancerous cells that began to divide into hundreds of cells that became known as HeLa cells. The book is made up of hundreds of interviews that Rebecca Skloot accomplishes most of these interviews were of the Lacks family.
Henrietta Lacks Sparknotes
729 Words | 3 PagesFirst of all, Henrietta was an African American woman at the time when there was still inequality and segregation towards African Americans. This was really evident when she went in for her checkups at Hopkins and how she was never asked for her consent with her cell tissue. Also, the medical treatments at that time were not very safe or effective. An example would be when they used radium to try and treat her cervical cancer. Little did they know that radium destroys any cells it touches and it can also cause cancer.
Essay On Henrietta Lacks
1474 Words | 6 PagesLoretta Pleasant was the birth name of the person we recognize today as Henrietta Lacks. She was raised by Grandpa Tommy at the age of 4 and grew up with a cousin named David Lacks (he was known as Day throughout the book. Fast forward a few years and now Henrietta at the age of 20 is married to a now 25 year old Day. After moving to Turner Station, Henrietta life starting to get complicated. After visiting the famous John Hopkins Hospital, Henrietta’s biopsy results came back and she was diagnosed with epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage 1.
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot
1263 Words | 6 PagesRebecca Skloot, sets out to tell the world the full story of the women behind the cells through her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. In this book, Skloot’s primary goal is to humanize Henrietta Lacks, an African American tobacco farmer who died from
The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lack
1319 Words | 6 PagesI recently finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack, a biography about Henrietta Lacks and how human tissue was taken without consent then used for medical research. Henrietta Lacks, was a poor colored woman with very little education, who died from uremic poisoning, due to the treatment for cervical cancer October of 1951 at age 31. In January of 1951, Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital because she found a knot on her womb and was bleeding and pain in her abdomen. Johns Hopkins is known for being the best research hospital around, Henrietta did not go because it was the best place to go, she went because it was the closest hospital that treated color patience. She was first diagnosed with abnormal pain and bleeding in her
Impact Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
1387 Words | 6 PagesHenrietta grew up in Virginia on a tobacco farm and was raised by her grandfather. When she was 30 years old she noticed a large knot in her lower stomach, and later found out it was cervical cancer. While staying a John Hopkins, doctors took pieces Henrietta's tissue from her cancerous tumor. Though they took the tissue, Henrietta nor her family gave permission for her cells to be taken (Miller, 2010). Dr. George Gey head of tissue-culture at John Hopkins could now grow a cell line that could help find a cure to cancer, because of Herietta's cells in her tissue.
What Is The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Unethical
1354 Words | 6 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been called “funny, tender”, and “vivid” (Penguin Random House). People have said that “Henrietta Lacks … comes fully alive” (Penguin Random House) in this novel, and it is considered “an amazing story [and is] deeply chilling” by many readers across the globe (Penguin Random House). On the contrary, one Tennessee parent thought that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was too pornographic for her fifteen-year-old son. She made claims to her son’s school that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was “pornographic” and that “it could be told in a different way” (Coder). Jackie Sims did not like how Skloot described Henrietta finding her cervical tumor or how she referenced that Mr. Lacks cheated on his
Argumentative Essay On Henrietta Lacks
239 Words | 1 PagesHenrietta Lacks was a black tobacco farmer from the south who, in 1950, at the age of 30, she was diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer. Lacks went to John’s Hopkins medical center for treatment for her cancer. In April of 1951, she underwent surgery to remove the larger tumor on her cervix. Henrietta Lacks, died three days following the surgery. Even though Henrietta Lacks died, her cells from the tumor have lived on and have made a major impact on the biomedical community.
Rhetorical Analysis: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
989 Words | 4 PagesBushra Pirzada Professor Swann Engh-302 October 4th 2015 Rhetorical Analysis: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks who has her cervical cancer. It further goes to tell the audience how Henrietta altered medicine unknowingly. Henrietta Lacks was initially diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951; however, the doctors at John Hopkins took sample tissues from her cervix without her permission. The sample tissues taken from Henrietta’s cervix were used to conduct scientific research as well as to develop vaccines in the suture.
Henrietta Lacks Thesis
1020 Words | 5 PagesThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta, an African-American woman whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Told through the eyes of her daughter, Deborah Lacks, aided by journalist Rebecca Skloot. Deborah wanted to learn about her mother, and to understand how the unauthorized harvesting of Lacks cancerous cells in 1951 led to unprecedented medical breakthroughs, changing countless lives and the face of medicine forever. It is a story of medical arrogance and triumph, race, poverty and deep friendship between the unlikeliest people. There had been many books published about Henrietta’s cells, but nothing about Henrietta’s personality, experiences, feeling, life style etc.
Racism In The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
743 Words | 3 PagesHer doctor collected cancerous cells and healthy cells from her cervix and gave them to the cancer researcher, George Otto Gey, who was trying to keep cells alive for more than a couple days. Henrietta endured intense radium treatments, but she still died at the age of 31, leaving her husband and five children behind. An amazing discovery was made Henrietta’s cell were immortal. Racism is prevalent in this book through the limited availability of healthcare, unethical behaviors of the doctors, and how racism affected her family. During this time, there was an extensive lack of medical care for colored people.
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