The Secret Life of Henrietta Lacks was a book written by Rebecca Skloot in 2010. I had never heard of this book before I started to take Medically Terminology 1 and my teacher told us that we would be reading it over the course of the semester. I was very surprised that I had never heard of it before considering I work in a library. I enjoy reading books so when I learned that we would be reading a book I hadn't read I was excited to read it.
The Secret Life of Henrietta Lacks was about an African American family of 7 that lived in Virginia. The book started by explaining everything about her life and about the woman named Rebecca Skloot who would be the one writing about her life. It was written about the 1900's when Henrietta's family was alive and what her entire family went through. Henrietta had just given birth to her son when she realized that something was not going right with her body. Back then African …show more content…
Even though Henrietta didn’t enjoy it she decided it would just be better to trust them. Henrietta tried to keep the cancer a secret so that her family wouldn’t worry but eventually they found out. The radiation treatment that she was receiving started to make her tired and eventually she had to stay at the hospital because she was so sick. She kept getting smaller and smaller until eventually she died in the hospital on October 4, 1951 at age 31. After she passed the doctors asked her husband if they could do an autopsy for medical reasons. David didn't like the idea of her getting cut open but even though he didn't want them to take any samples from her the doctors did it anyways. Her samples then became known as HeLa. They were the first cells that multiplied and didn't die when they were kept stored. It made doctors go crazy and it made tons of money and a lot of new discoveries that helped people around the
The Secret Life of Henrietta Lacks was about an African American family of 7 that lived in Virginia. The book started by explaining everything about her life and about the woman named Rebecca Skloot who would be the one writing about her life. It was written about the 1900's when Henrietta's family was alive and what her entire family went through. Henrietta had just given birth to her son when she realized that something was not going right with her body. Back then African …show more content…
Even though Henrietta didn’t enjoy it she decided it would just be better to trust them. Henrietta tried to keep the cancer a secret so that her family wouldn’t worry but eventually they found out. The radiation treatment that she was receiving started to make her tired and eventually she had to stay at the hospital because she was so sick. She kept getting smaller and smaller until eventually she died in the hospital on October 4, 1951 at age 31. After she passed the doctors asked her husband if they could do an autopsy for medical reasons. David didn't like the idea of her getting cut open but even though he didn't want them to take any samples from her the doctors did it anyways. Her samples then became known as HeLa. They were the first cells that multiplied and didn't die when they were kept stored. It made doctors go crazy and it made tons of money and a lot of new discoveries that helped people around the