The First Immortal Cells

            I recently started to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the biography of Henrietta

Lacks. It is a dense, information-packed book. It tells the story not only of the woman with the

first immortal cells, but also one of the stories of a long line of shocking, race-based medical

malpractices. Reading this book is not only interesting but it also helped me learn more about

the injustice that some people in this country faced a while ago. 

Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1st, 1920. She was one out of 10 children to her young mother and eventually went to live with her grandfather, while her other siblings went to live with relatives close by. Along with her grandfather, she lived with her cousin, David. She would later marry him and have five children. 

She had her first child at the age of 14 and soon became a full time mother. Her family moved to Baltimore, where she had three of her other children. Her husband, who everyone called Day, worked in a factory with racially unequal pay, making 88 cents an hour. According to her relatives, there were almost always other relatives or cousins staying in their house, and Henrietta cooked and took care of her children all day, as well as cooking and cleaning.

Just after having her fifth child, at the age of 29, she noticed a knot inside of her cervix. Little did she know, it was cervical cancer. She went to John Hopkins Hospital. While Henrietta was there, they took part of the lump to test for cancer, but they also took a sample for tests on cervical cancer. They did not tell her that they were taking her cells, but she did sign a form saying that she agreed to anything that was done to her during her examination. 

She didn’t know that they were doing this at the time, and she was never informed that hers would be the first immortal cells. The cancerous cells would only keep multiplying in the vial they were stored in, unlike every other patient doctors had ever seen. Usually, cells died within a few days, but hers are still alive today. Although Henrietta quickly died of cancer, her cells helped advance cancer research and medicine. Most labs and hospitals in the United States and some internationally have some of her cells, which keep growing and double approximately every 24 hours. 

While her family lived in poverty, her cells were sold to doctors and scientists everywhere. Henrietta Lacks died in 1951, but her family didn’t know about the cells until a doctor mentioned them to her daughter in 1973. The author describes her struggle to get in touch with the family at the beginning of the book. She talks about being hung up on, believed to be in contact with the family only for financial gain, and how her persistence eventually got her in touch with the Lacks family. 

I believe that this book does a good job of highlighting the injustice that was brought to Henrietta Lacks and her family. Although it is a very dense book, it is definitely worth reading. I found myself getting caught up in the plot and forgetting to do some of my homework several times. This book is a must-read!