Introduction to Henrietta Lacks and Her Diagnosis
Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant in 1920 and was raised in the rural town of Clover, Virginia. She grew up working on a tobacco farm alongside her relatives, spending her days tending to crops and livestock. She eventually married her cousin, Day Lacks, and moved to Turner Station, Maryland, seeking better opportunities during the Great Migration.
In January 1951, Henrietta went to *Johns Hopkins Hospital* after discovering a hard lump in her womb. At the time, the hospital was strictly segregated, with separate wards and facilities designated for Black patients. The examining doctor found a unique, delicate purple tumor on her cervix that bled easily to the touch.
A tissue biopsy soon confirmed that Henrietta had a localized form of cervical cancer. She initially kept the gravity of the diagnosis a secret from her family, telling her husband the doctors would easily fix the problem. She was entering a medical system that frequently viewed patients in the public wards as clinical material for research.
Henrietta underwent standard medical treatments involving the surgical insertion of radioactive radium to kill the cancer. Before applying the radium, the surgeon took two tissue samples from her cervix without her knowledge or *informed consent*. One sample came directly from the tumor, and the other came from her surrounding healthy tissue.
These unauthorized samples were sent directly to a tissue culture laboratory within the hospital. The laboratory was run by researcher George Gey, who was desperately trying to grow human cells outside the human body. The samples were labeled *HeLa*, using the first two letters of Henrietta's first and last names to identify them.
Full summary available in the Readsome app
