He La Cells Part 1

Jefferson, Jameka Shonte’

He La Cells Part 1

20 July 2012

He La Cells Part 1

I am learning so much about how African American were treated in the 1950s.Rebecca
Skloot knows more about the African American history than I do and I am an African American. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks makes me want to learn more about the African American history and be aware of their struggle for freedom.

Part one was very disturbing to read because segregation played a major role in how Henrietta was treated as a patient. If Henrietta was a Caucasian patient, then maybe she would have gotten treatment earlier as opposed to when her condition gotten worse. Chapter eight has a quote that demonstrates how African Americans patients did not receive the same treatment as Caucasian patients:

“According to Howard Jones, Henrietta got the same care any white patient would have; the biopsy, the radium treatment, and radiation were all standard for the day. But several studies have shown that black patients were treated and hospitalized at later stages of their illness than white patients. And once hospitalized, they got fewer pain medication, and had high mortality rates” (64)

Since African Americans never questioned a Caucasian doctor, then Henrietta probably thought it was too soon to get treatment. I think even if Henrietta voiced her opinion, then the doctors still would not have believed her.

            As the days went on, Henrietta was slowly dying and scientists did not care whatsoever. Scientists treated Henrietta as a lab rat and only cared about making vaccines. It is obvious that George Gey did not care what kind of condition Henrietta was in because her cells were the key to understanding different types of diseases. The doctors were helpful to a certain extend; however, they wrote lies in her medical file to so they do not get in trouble. They could have at least told Henrietta that the radium treatment will make her infertile.

            I do not think that it should matter what type of ethnic background Rebecca comes from. Rebecca had to prove to Roland Pattillo that she was not another Caucasian person trying to write a journal about He La cells. She spent almost ten years writing the book, which means that she wanted people to feel the pain Henrietta went through as oppose to writing a generic biography. Rebecca makes Henrietta come alive in the book and I can get a sense of what type of person Henrietta was.

I apologize for posting my blog so late.