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Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. No one knows how she became Henrietta, which was later shortened to Hennie after her mother's death when she was four. Her mother died giving birth to her tenth child in 1924. Henrietta was one of ten children. All the children were sent to live with aunts, uncles, and cousins in Clover. Hennie ended up with her grandfather, Tommy Lacks.

Later, Henrietta married David Lacks, her first cousin, on April 10, 1941. Henrietta and David had five children. The first child was born when Henrietta was fourteen. Lawrence (born 1935), Elsie (born 1939-1955), David "Sonny" Jr. (born 1947), Deborah (born 1949-2009), and Joseph (born 1950), who later changed his name to Zakariyya, are the names of her children. Henrietta's last child, Joseph, was born four and a half months before Henrietta was diagnosed with cancer.

Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital on January 29, 1951. She claimed to feel a knot inside her. Her cousins asked her if she had felt this lump and she said she did. They thought she was pregnant again. After her fifth child was born, Henrietta was bleeding abnormally and profusely. Her local doctor referred her to John Hopkins Hospital because it was the closest to them that treated black patients. The doctor there had discovered Henrietta had stage 1 of cervical cancer. Henrietta had numerous samples taken from her cervix for further study of her cells without her permission. The doctor discovered that when he kept the cells, they didn't die instantly like normal cells would. He discovered that her cells were immortal. However, her condition continued to worsen and she returned on August 8th. She remained at the hospital until her death. She died of uremic poisoning on October 4, 1951.

Researcher, George Gey, was given Henrietta's immortal cells for study. He said they were like nothing he has ever seen before. Gey was able to isolate one specific cell, multiply it, and start a cell line. Before, normal cells were only able to survive for a few days. He named them HeLa cells after the first two letters of Henrietta's first name and the first two letters of her last name.

By 1954, HeLa cells were being used by Jonas Salk to develop a vaccine for polio. The demand for HeLa cells grew rapidly so they were put into mass production and mailed to scientists around the world for research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and other toxic substances, gene mapping, and many other scientific pursuits. HeLa cells have even been used for testing human sensitivity to tape, glue, cosmetics, and other products. Scientists have grown about 20 tons of her cells.

In the early 1970's, Henrietta's family stated receiving calls from thousands of researchers who wanted blood samples from them to learn about the family's genetics such as eye color, hair color, and other genetic conditions. They family wondered why they were being asked such strange requests and they learned about the removal of Henrietta's cells.

VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gF8bCE4wqA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlINobLQvlg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwMJGRBIFiU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vow1ePzuqo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=497Scue9sdY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB_xqGIFl84

ARTICLES: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/04/henrietta-lacks-cancer-cells http://abcnews.go.com/WN/henrietta-lacks-woman-cells-polio-cancer-flu-research-medicine/story?id=9712579 http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/02/the_consent_conundrum.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/books/review/Margonelli-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/02/15/health-care-injustice.html http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Henrietta-Lacks-Immortal-Cells.html http://scienceblogs.com/culturedish/2010/05/31/more-on-henrietta-lackss-new-g/

BOOKS SIMILAR: The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present The Emperor of All Maladies