Summary from page 137 to page 176

            In 1965, two British scientist Henry Harris and Watkins fused HeLa cells with mouse cells and it created the first human-animal hybrids-cells whished it contained equal amounts of DNA from Henrietta and mouse.   As a result, it helped made possible the study of what genes do, and how they work.

In 1966, Deborah had her first child, but her partner always hit her and she had to leave him.  Her brothers Lawrence and Sonny were fine at that time but the other brother Joe was the problem of the family because he loved to fight.  Joe spent most of his time in jail because he killed a boy.

In September 1966, was the “Second Decennial Review Conference on Cell Tissue and Organ Culture”.   They were discussing the future of cell culture and how HeLa cells were contaminating others cells.

In 1970 Gey discovered that he had cancer in his pancreas. A few months later, he died.   The next year, his colleges published their tribute to Gey in the journal, “Obstetrics and Gynecology”.   Mentioned, was the original pathologist finding of Henrietta’s cancer.   They said that her tumor was invasive, but not an epidermis carcinoma as originally diagnosed.   In the some article they published the real name of HeLa and a picture of her.

Sonny took the writer to Lawrence who is the only one who remembered his mother, but also Day was there.   The writer began to tell them about all important things that was happening with Henrietta’s cells.  Then, Day told her about Henrietta.

How do you read in English?

When I read in English, I do it in my bedroom or in the living room.   There are some books that are a litter difficult for me because it has many vocabulary that I do not understand and sometime I do not fund it in the dictionary but also, I read more than one time.  If I did not understand the meaning, I continue reading and sometime I realize the meaning of the world.         

Summary from page 93 to 136

          After Henrietta was buried, her husband Day returned to his daily routines but he did not have someone who could help care for his children because the older child who is Lawrence entered into the Army.  As a result, Ethel wife of Galen who is cousin of Henrietta and Day, she decided to move into their house to help with the children.   Ethel was always jealous of Henrietta because her husband was always in love with her.   When she was in Day’s house, she started to sleep with him.   She begun torturing his children but also, she did not give them enough food to eat.    The most terrible thing was that Galen was fondling Deborah and he was telling her dirty words.   A few years later, Laurence returned and took his brothers and sister to live with him and his girlfriend. 

            Reader Lovingly was the person who opened the first cell factory with Henrietta’s cells in Bethesda, Maryland.  Then, a lot of scientist began to purchase Henrietta’s cells for experiments.

           May 1954, was the first published story about HeLa cells.  It told how helpful these cells were for human beings and the discovered of treatment for many diseases but they did not use Henrietta’s real name in the publication.

          In 1954 Chester Southam, as a scientist began to injected people with HeLa cells without consent of the patients.  He was trying to see how HeLa cells act in a person with cancer and a healthy person.

        The writer visited Henrietta’s cousin Cliff who showed her the house that Henrietta grew up in and the family cemetery where Henrietta is buried which is located in the back yard of her house.  He also, told her the history of their family.


I do not understand how doctors could do anything with their patients and not to tell them.

Summary from page 66 to 92

By September, tumors had spread throughout Henrietta’s body.  She suffered pains all over her body and she had to be tied to the bed because she was always falling out of the bed in pain so unbearable.   She was receiving a blood transfusion as usual when suddenly her whole body became rigid.   She felt such a severe pain that she even bit her tongue.   As a result, the doctor injected her with a heavy dose of morphine and the doctor stopped all medications and treatments.   In addition, Henrietta’s condition worsened.   Sadly, she died a month later.   When Gey heard Henrietta had died, he called her husband to give him the sad news about her death, and also to ask for permission to perform an autopsy on her body.   In fact, the cause of Henrietta’s death was Terminal Uremia because some tumors had completely blocked her urethra and she could not urinate.   In the end, her family kept her body for a while and then, she was buried next to her mother.

The writer arrived in Baltimore looking for family Lacks because she wanted more information about Henrietta.   She found the place that Henrietta formerly resided in, what was called Turners Station.   She met Courtney Speed who knew Henrietta and her and others were going to open a museum in Henrietta’s honor.   Courtney showed the writer a picture and a documentary about Henrietta and her unique cells, but she could not talk about Henrietta without Henrietta’s family permission.

 Afterwards, the writer traveled to Clover, Virginia looking for Lacks Town.  When she got there, she met Cootie, Henrietta’s first cousin.  His real name is Hector Henry they call him “Cootie” because when he was a kid, he got polio and a local white doctor took him to the hospital passing him off as his son.  The doctor did that because the hospital did not treat black patients at that time.

 After a year of treatment at the hospital, he returned to his house.   As a result, he could not move his arms very well like a normal person.   Remarkably, he built his own house twice because the first one had burnt down.  Cootie began to talk about Henrietta with the writer and he told her how Henrietta took care of him when he got sick by polio.   He told her that some people were saying that Henrietta’s sickness was made by a person, but also others said that it was by a doctor.   No one could say for sure.

1-    How and why did the family keep Henrietta’s body for so long?

2-    Why the doctor did not tell Henrietta’s husband that she was going to die?

Comments

This is a very good example.

First, the author went to find Henrietta’s family. She discussed Henrietta’s life with her family and got information from them. Then she organized the things happened to Henrietta Lacks. Finally, she started to use those researches to write a book about Henrietta and her immortal cells.


Cancer comes from a unique cell and then spread fast in part of the body.

I would change this sentence with the following

 Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body.

Historical Timeline

1. The Tuskegee Institute opens the first “HeLa factory,” supplying cells to laboratories and researchers and operating as a nonprofit in 1952. The first company that would begin selling Hela for profit was called Microbiological Associates.

2. Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920.

3. George Gey successfully cultures the first immortal human cell line in 1952 using cells from Henrietta Lacks’s cervix . The name of HeLa was given because her  first two initials first and last names.
4. Scientists use HeLa cells to help develop the polio vaccine in 1952.

5. The name of the hospital where Henrietta was treated for cervical cancer is Johns Hopkins Hospital and it was founded in 1889.

6.  HeLa cells become the first cells ever cloned in 1953.

Summary “The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” from page 34 until page 66.

George Gey was born in 1899 and grew up on a Pittsburgh hillside.   He made the laboratory his home away from home where Henrietta’s cells were studied the first time.  In addition, he graduated with a degree in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh.  Also, he was a very ingenious person because if he got an idea, he worked hard at it no matter what it was.   For example, he invented the roller-tube culturing technique that was his most important invention.   Gey, Mary Kubicek and Margaret were the first people who experimented with Henrietta’s cells.  They were trying to keep all kinds of living cell a life such as: Rabbits cells, Rats cells, Guinea Pigs cells and cow cells but they always died, but Henrietta’s cells never died.

Henrietta spent two days at Hopkins hospital after her first radium treatment to treat her tumor. Doctors checked her and said she was fine and she could return to her house.  Furthermore, she came back for a second treatment of radium, two and a half weeks later.   Two days after her treatment, Mary checked Henrietta’s cells that were in the incubator room and saw that they were growing and multiplying.  As a result, Mary had to use a lot of test tubes to divide Henrietta’s cells.  Gey was excited with what was happening and told a few of his closet colleagues about the first immortal human cells growing in his laboratory.  Gey appeared on WAAM television in Baltimore for a special show about his work with cells.   After that he began to send Henrietta’s cells to any scientist who could use them for cancer research. When Henrietta returned to her home, she resumed her normal activities.   Time passed, she went to see the doctor, he noted that her cervix was a little red and inflamed but he did not see any tumor.  Consequently, Henrietta had to start X-ray therapy every day for a month at the hospital.   Her husband could not take her because he worked at nights and she told her cousins about her medical condition she was having.   After, she started x-ray therapy she began to fell weak from the treatment.   Each day that passed, she had trouble walking toward her cousin house.  Henrietta was always complaining about her abdominal discomfort to different doctors but they could not find anything wrong with her.   Two and half weeks later, she returned to the hospital because she still had pain and she could not urinate and the doctor passed a catheter to empty her bladder and the doctor send her back again to her house.   Later, she arrived at the hospital for her treatment and she preferred to stay there because she was having a lot of pain.

Alexis Carrel a French surgeon at the Rockefeller Institute, he was the first person who grew “Immortal Chicken Heart”, but also he invented the first technique for suturing blood vessels together and coronary by-pass.  After he died, the chicken heart died too.