![]() As her cells flourish, however, Henrietta continues to decline. Then Gey is given a sample of Henrietta’s cervical tissue by her doctors (and without her knowledge), and her cancer cells begin growing at an extraordinary rate. Doctors such as George Gey (who worked at Hopkins) were seeking to create a breed of human cells that could regenerate eternally-an immortal cell line-but were having no success. Rebecca explains more about cervical cancer research and treatments in the 1950s, before moving on to the practice of cell culturing, which was in its early stages at this time. The two first had a daughter named Elsie, who was mentally impaired, and who eventually died in an asylum called Crownsville. She then traces Henrietta’s lineage back to the town of Clover, VA, explaining how Henrietta met her husband (and cousin), Day. ![]() ![]() Skloot explains that Johns Hopkins was one of the best hospitals in the country, but that it subscribed to deeply racist practices when it came to treating African Americans. Rebecca narrates Henrietta’s first visits to Johns Hopkins hospital, where doctors first tell her she is fine, but eventually diagnose her with cervical cancer and treat her with radiation. Rebecca then introduces Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s daughter, and a key figure in Rebecca’s quest. Rebecca explains that HeLa made possible some of the most important discoveries of the 21st century, but that we know little about the woman behind them. A journalist named Rebecca Skloot recounts learning about an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951 of cervical cancer, but whose cancerous cells became the first immortal human cell line, called HeLa.
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