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Summary of the book

6 Pages 1432 Words January 2015

“The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks”, written by science writer Rebecca Skloot, is about the long journey of Henrietta Lacks' cells (HeLa). Starting from the day Henrietta was born in Clover, Virginia; to the discovery of HeLa and Henrietta’s death in 1951 at the Hopkins hospital; and up to the publishing of the book in 2009. Skloot goes into the discovery and importance in science (cell culture) of the HeLa cells, as well as the history and present life of Henrietta's family. The scientific discovery of Hela and the effect it had on the lacks family is told from years of research by Skloot with the help of Henrietta’s older daughter, Deborah Lacks. The depth in details of her journey, findings, and the emotional connection she holds with with both the readers and family of Henrietta is apparent from beginning to end. Skloot uses word to word statements from Henrietta’s family and doctors, only changing some words for clarity of grammar purposes in which she states in the prologue. Also, the relationship and trust Deborah and skloot build through their journey together is special. Especially when it took Deborah a hard time trusting any “white folk” that came around talking about her mothers cells, and distanced herself from information about her mother; Skloot became the one that Deborah finally opened up to after a year of calls from Skloot requesting more information about her mother.
Skloot organizes the book into three major sections, life, death, and immortality. “Life," tells the story of the early life of Henrietta Lacks up to her death on October 19, 1951. She died only a few months after giving birth to her last child, Joe Lacks. Diesing from numerous cervical cancer tumors on mostly all of her major organs. Diagnosed as Epidermoid carcinoma but years later turned out to be Cervical adenocarcinomas: a more aggressive cervical cancer. From her cells collected before and after her death-- head of tissue cultur...

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