Henrietta Lacks Failure

Rebbecca Sloot's intrest in Henrietta Lacks life began when she was sixteen and Donald Defler, her biology teacher at the time gave a speech about human cells and how one mistake or mutation in reproduction of the cells could completely destroy the process. Therefore promote the onslaught of maligant cell growth in the body also known as cancer. Rebecca was very fasinated by the subject and also about Henrietta Lack's story, her disease and also how her stolen cells allowed for such great medical advancements. Henrietta Lacks cells were the first cells to be cultured and reproduced in a laboratory enviorment. In the 1950s scientist had attempted this for decades but only been met with failure, growing cells outside the body was seemingly impossible.

Finding a culture medium was a major problem along with lack of a an effective sterilization process.
Henrietta Lacks was born in Roanoke,Virginia on August 1, 1920.

Her mother died when Henrietta was four during childbirth. Her father soon moved the family to Clover,Virginia and Henietta lived with her grandfather. Henrietta’s cousin, Day Lacks grew up with her. They soon fell in love and married in 1941 and had two childeren. Henrietta was fourteen and eighteen at the time when she had each of her childeren. She would soon after being to expericence a pain for a year which she described as a “knot on her womb”. John Hopkins University hospital where Henrietta went to be examined soon discovered her cervix was fostering a purple lump of malignant cancerous cells. Her doctor ,Dr. Howard Jones took a sample of the cells to send in for testing. No sign of anything out of the norm was very noted after childbirth or even months prior to Henrietta's synomptms emerging. Dr. Richard TeLinde and Dr. George Gey had both been working in an attenpt to grow cancerous cells and cervical tissues in a lab enviorment outside the human body but had been met with failure. Despite the violation of patients rights however the surgeon that Henrietta worked with back at Johns Hopkins for treatment had taken a sample of both cancerous and normal cervical tissue before putting tubes of radium into her cervix as treatment. The samples were kept secret from Henrietta and she never knew her cells would be used in experiments. Henrietta’s cancerous cells were nicknamed HeLa and as they grew so did

so did Henrietta’s cancer. Henrietta tried to keep up with normal day to day activities to keep her active. She liked dancing, often traveling to Clover, Virginia, and regualarly visited her mentally disabled daughter. Henrietta was not fully aware of the severity of the side effects that her treatment brought.

The cancer treatments however were taking a toll on her body the flesh on her her torso area becoming black . Also the radium tubes soon made her infertile and inable to have childeren. HeLa was met with great speculation due to the many false reports about similar accomplishments. Henritta was deemed cancer free despite her increasing pain. Doctor's word was almost always taken over the patients complaints. Henrietta, especially being a black woman of the times would not be taken seriously over a doctors claims. However a huge tumor in Henrietta’s abdomen had begun to spread rapidly which required her to be back in the hopistal and go throught harsh intensive radiation in a frantic attempt to retard the growth of the cells. In September of 1951, Henriettas body was overtaken by cancer bringing immense pain. The doctors attempted blood transfusions, but soon all they could do was provide her with pain reilf and in October she died. Doctors were soon granted permission to do an autopsy on Henrietta after Dr. Gey it could be useful genetic infromation for his children in the future. This was the first time Mary Kubicek, Gey’s assistant realized HeLa had come from

a real person. HeLa's ability to rapidly multiply allowed it to soon become a powerhouse for future cell research allowing for countless experiments to take place. Soon 20,000 test tubes of cells of HeLa cells were being grown weekly at the Tuskgee Institute. Researchers and doctors soon began to take the cell culture industry to make ground breaking medical advancements in cancer research.Microbiological Associates soon launched the mass cell distribution center turning cell and tissue culture into a booming industry. However when questions Gey G claimed the samples had come after the patients death. The Nuremburg Code of ethics soon emerged that, which stated that patients give constent but was not enforced as a law but soon became law when Dr. Chester Southam was caught injecting HeLa cells into patients without consent as part of a mass experiment. Reform came in the field of handling ofcells when fear of contamination, created a collection of known cells that acted as reference.1966, sceincetist uncovered a huge flaw in HeLa cells research as they were found in 18 other cell lines and this contamination invailidated years of research and medical discoveries went to waste.In 2000 Rebbecca meets Henrietta's family and fully explains the missing pieces of HeLa. The family is enraged that her cells were taken without consent and that people had profited off Henrietta's cells, they also requested a cut of the profits. Her name was soon revealed to the public when George Gey died of cancer and his colleagues went through his notes to write an article in his honor.