The gift of life is surely the greatest gift of all. So how could the story of a remarkable woman who gave that gift over and over again have been overlooked for so long? Here's Jim Axelrod now to set the record straight:

Somewhere in the humble family cemetery off a country road in the town of Clover in southern Virginia, a woman who died nearly 60 years ago lies in an unmarked grave.

It is a shame, because the world should know her name: Henrietta Lacks.

She was a poor, African-American tobacco farmer, a mother of five children, who died of cervical cancer when she was 31.

She was also, says Rebecca Skloot, one of the most important unknown figures in medicine, "and she had no idea."

Skloot, a professor at the University of Memphis, devoted 10 years to telling her story, writing the current bestseller, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."

The story starts near the end of Henrietta's life: in 1950 the great-granddaughter of slaves was being treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Without her knowing, and unrelated to her treatment, doctors took some of her cells for research.

"She happened to walk into Hopkins at a time when scientists were trying to grow human cells in culture and were taking cells from anybody they could," said Skloot.

By the late 1940s scientists were on the brink of a golden age of medicine, Jonas Salk was racing to develop the polio vaccine, but his work - and that of countless others - was hampered because they lacked a critical tool: human cells for testing.

Scientists had been trying for years to keep human cells alive in the lab, but none of them lasted very long, until Henrietta Lacks showed up at Hopkins.

"With her under anesthesia, they just took this small piece of her tumor, without her knowing, and they put it in a dish and sent it down the hall to George Guy, who was the head of tissue culture research at Hopkins," said Skloot. "He had been trying to grow human cells for decades, and it had never worked. And hers just took off."

"Took off" doesn't begin to describe it. For the first time in history, human cells could be grown and infinitely replicated, outside the body.

Henrietta Lacks died in October 1951, just 8 months after seeking help at Hopkins. But her cells lived on, multiplying by the billions.

Why? What was there specific to Henrietta Lacks' cells?

"We know, mechanically, that the cells stay alive because they have this enzyme in them that rebuilds the ends of their chromosomes, so the cells just never get old, they don't die," Skloot said. "But why her cells did that when all the other cells didn't is still a little bit of a mystery."

To this day, "HeLa" cells - named by combining the first two letters of "Henrietta" and "Lacks" - are a cornerstone of modern medicine.

"To tick off all the way HeLa cells have been used, we would be sitting here for weeks," Skloot told Axelrod. "Hundreds and thousands of studies. They were used to help test the polio vaccine so that it could be approved for use in people. They went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity. Hers were the first cells ever cloned, some of the first genes ever mapped. They've been used to create some of our basic cancer drugs, like tomaxiphin.

"I mean, the range of things that HeLa cells has been used for is, kind of, incomprehensible."

"It sounds like it's hard to imagine science in the last half-century without Hela cells," said Axelrod.

"Oh yeah! Scientists I've talked to say you cannot overestimate how important HeLa cells have been."

Yet no one in the Lacks family had been informed by Johns Hopkins of the existence of their mother's cells, until a researcher called in the early 1970s wanting to test the family.

"Henrietta's husband basically got a phone call one day," Skloot said, "and the way he understood it was, 'We've got your wife, she's alive in a laboratory, we've been doing research on her for the last 25 years.' The only cell he'd ever heard of was the kind in a prison, and he literally thought, 'Okay, so, they have her in a cell? They have part of her in a cell?'"

The news left the Lacks family confused . . . and scared.

"When you look at this in the context of the family story, you know, at 25 years after her death, not only were her cells still alive, but there were enough of them that if you could pile them all on a scale, they'd weigh 50 million metric tons," Skloot said. "That's 150 Empire State Buildings. You know, it's just inconceivable that that could even be true, and it was."

"I almost feel raped, like the family feels raped," one Lacks family member told Axelrod. "You know, they did it, and nobody told it."

"For the family, Johns Hopkins is absolutely the bad guy,' Skloot said.

"Johns Hopkins needs to do a better job of communicating with the family and recognizing it," said Dr. Daniel Ford, a vice-dean at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Using Henrietta's cells for research, he maintains, was standard practice for the time.

"I think if we go back to that time and compare it to now, there was probably more of a focus on the science and discovery, with less consideration of what it meant to that individual that was going to be part of the scientific process whether they knew it or not," said Dr. Ford.

The hospital is working on acknowledging the Lacks family, but it's a tricky situation.

"The reason why is although the Henrietta Lacks case is the one that we're talking about and has the highest profile, that is not the only patient that has contributed to the research agenda of Johns Hopkins or the nation," said Dr. Ford. "So one of the issues is talking about precedent and what does that mean?"

What that means, among other things, is money. And while Hopkins claims it never sold HeLa cells, the same can't be said for medical supply companies.

"Is there any way to calculate how much money has been made off of Henrietta Lacks' cells?" Axelrod asked.

"No. They were the first cells ever commercialized, and that was in the 1950s," said Skloot. "You know, you can buy online HeLa cells or products made from HeLa cells for anywhere from about $200 to about $10,000 a vial."

"But it's an incalculable amount of money?" Axelrod asked.

"Yeah," said Skloot.

And consider this: The family of the woman whose cells changed medical history . . . can't afford health insurance.

Henrietta's middle child, Sonny, is $100,000 in debt after bypass surgery.

"How does that leave you feeling?" asked Axelrod.

"Well, it leaves me feeling kind of, not angry, a little bit that I don't have the medical coverage, and then that my mother's cells is being used all over the world for science purpose, and then the medical coverage that we have is zero, me and my brother," Sonny said.

No medical coverage, no money, and there's one more thing the Lackses and Henrietta have gone without: recognition.

"You know, Hopkins got a wing for this and a wing for that," said another Lacks family member. "It would be nice if they had a Henrietta Lacks wing."

Lawrence Lacks, the oldest of Henrietta's five children, said, "Well, one thing I'm going to say is I think it's wrong, out of all that money they made off my mother, she's down there in Virginia in an unmarked grave."

That's about to change.

Just last week Henrietta's family learned the exact location where their mother is buried, right next to her mother, Eliza Pleasant, in the shade on an old oak. A donated headstone will be placed there come spring.

"They used to tell me stories about my mother, you know? She was a giver," said Sonny. "And she's doing it, you know? She's still giving.

"And to me, it just feels good about that. Mama, who gave so much, Henrietta Lacks is still living today."


For more info:
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot (Crown)
Read an Excerpt
rebeccaskloot.com
lacksfamily.com
Henrietta Lacks Foundation

Wonder Woman
The Life, Death, and Life After Death of Henrietta Lacks, Unwitting Heroine of Modern Medical Science

PHOTO COURTESY THE LACKS FAMILY
Henrietta Lacks

By Van Smith | Posted 4/17/2002
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On Feb. 1, 1951, Henrietta Lacks--mother of five, native of rural southern Virginia, resident of the Turner Station neighborhood in Dundalk--went to Johns Hopkins Hospital with a worrisome symptom: spotting on her underwear. She was quickly diagnosed with cervical cancer. Eight months later, despite surgery and radiation treatment, the Sparrows Point shipyard worker's wife died at age 31 as she lay in the hospital's segregated ward for blacks.
Not all of Henrietta Lacks died that October morning, though. She unwittingly left behind a piece of herself that still lives today.

While she was in Hopkins' care, researchers took a fragment of Lacks' tumor and sliced it into little cubes, which they bathed in nutrients and placed in an incubator. The cells, dubbed "HeLa" for Henrietta Lacks, multiplied as no other cells outside the human body had before, doubling their numbers daily. Their dogged growth spawned a breakthrough in cell research; never before could investigators reliably experiment on such cell cultures because they would weaken and die before meaningful results could be obtained. On the day of Henrietta's death, the head of Hopkins' tissue-culture research lab, Dr. George Gey, went before TV cameras, held up a tube of HeLa cells, and announced that a new age of medical research had begun--one that, someday, could produce a cure for cancer.

When he discovered HeLa could survive even shipping via U.S. mail, Gey sent his prize culture to colleagues around the country. They allowed HeLa to grow a little, and then sent some to their colleagues. Demand quickly rose, so the cells were put into mass production and traveled around the globe--even into space, on an unmanned satellite to determine whether human tissues could survive zero gravity.

In the half-century since Henrietta Lacks' death, her tumor cells--whose combined mass is probably much larger than Lacks was when she was alive--have continually been used for research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits. Dr. Jonas Salk used HeLa to help develop his polio vaccine in the early '50s. The cells are so hardy that they took over other tissue cultures, researchers discovered in the 1970s, leading to reforms in how such cultures are handled. In the biomedical world, HeLa cells are as famous as lab rats and petri dishes.

Yet Henrietta Lacks herself remains shrouded in obscurity. Gey, of course, knew HeLa's origins, but he believed confidentiality was paramount--so for years, Henrietta's family didn't know her cells still lived, much less how important they had become. After Gey died in 1970, the secret came out. But it was not until 1975, when a scientifically savvy fellow dinner-party guest asked family members if they were related to the mother of the HeLa cell, that Lacks' descendants came to understand her critical role in medical research.

The concept was mind-blowing--in a sense, it seemed to Lacks' family, she was being kept alive in the service of science. "It just kills me," says Henrietta's daughter, Deborah Lacks-Pullum, now 52 and still living in Baltimore, "to know my mother's cells are all over the world."

In the 27 years since the Lacks family serendipitously learned of Henrietta's unwitting contribution, little has been done to honor her. "Henrietta Lacks Day" is celebrated in Turner Station each year on Feb. 1. In 1996, prompted by Atlanta's Morehouse College, that city's mayor proclaimed Oct. 11 Henrietta Lacks Day. The following year, Congress passed a resolution in her memory sponsored by Rep. Robert Ehrlich (R-Md.), whose 2nd District includes Turner Station, and the British Broadcasting Corp. produced a documentary on her remarkable story. Beyond that, however, virtually nothing has been done to celebrate Lacks' contribution--not even by Hopkins, which gained immeasurable prestige from Gey's work with her cells.

Lacks-Pullum is bitter about this. "We never knew they took her cells, and people done got filthy rich [from HeLa-based research], but we don't get a dime," she says. The family can't afford a reputable lawyer to press its case for some financial stake in the work. She says she has appealed to Hopkins for help, and "all they do is pat me on my shoulder and put me out the door."

Hopkins spokesperson Gary Stephenson is quick to point out that Hopkins never sold HeLa, so it didn't make money from Henrietta's contribution. Still, he says, "there are people here who would like something done, and I'm hoping that at some point something will be done in a formal way to note her very, very important contribution."

Lacks-Pullum shares those hopes, but she is pessimistic. "Hopkins," she says, "they don't care."

Lost in the acrimony over ethical and financial issues stemming from Henrietta Lacks' cells, though, is Henrietta Lacks herself. A descendant of slaves and slaveholders, she grew up farming the same land on which her forebears toiled--and that her relatives still farm today. As part of an aspiring black middle class with rural roots, she left her childhood home to join a migration to Baltimore, where Bethlehem Steel was eager to hire hard workers from the country. She was in the midst of realizing an American dream when her life was cut short. And her cells helped realize society's larger dreams for health and knowledge. As such, she's been called a hero, a martyr, even a saint. But during her life, as Ehrlich said to his colleagues in Congress, Henrietta Lacks "was known as pleasant and smiling, and always willing the lend a helping hand." That she did, in more ways than she ever knew.

Page 1 of 4. 1 2 3 4

Wow Sunshine that is LONG! Well beyond my attention span. It took me 5 minutes just to scroll down! [edited by TB.Net]

Sorry for the length. I did not have the time to take the important parts from what I read. I copied and pasted it as is. I do realize that, due to our different personalities the info, although long, will be interesting to some, and will not be to some. I find it very interesting and thought sharing it would be good. Will shorten next time. Thanks for your advise.

Interesting Sushine. I believe things like this happen behind the scene all the time. It reminds me of the Tuskeegee syphilis experiment.

...ALL of US should Have LEGAL Documents with OUR Permission(s)/ Wishes,Written while WE ARE alive,that OUR INTERNAL ORGANS be given up for re-
search/ Studies.Before the Body goes in the Grave.
After the Re-search,Request that YOUR Good Liver,Strong Heart, Clean Lungs,Good EYES-20/20 Vision,etc; be GIVEN TO People who NEED them. We CAN leave OUR last Legacy behind,for the LIVING: If WE do not do it,the Worms and Bugs WILL Appreciate it and benefit. YOUR CHOICE...Think Quickly and Do It, Please! Thank YOU, for OTHERS sake:

Good Day to YOU Sunshine...

Hope YOU are IN Best of HEALTH,When YOU received this Note.
I SAW YOUR request a FEW Weeks ago,on this site. YOU ASKED a Question,but YOU got no Good answer to SATISFY YOUR HEART DESIRE.
So,I am sending these Web-Sites for YOU to CHECK INTO,to FIND what YOU NEED,or just wanted:
Relating to YOUR Question,I know YOU will FIND
just what YOU are LOOKING FOR?

Site #1. www.JSM.ORG
Site #2. www.CBN.COM

I WISH YOU ALL the BEST. Take QUALITY CARE of YOUR-SELF!

Back at yard, thank you, very much.

Dearest Sunshine,

YOU are very MUCH,WELCOME...
I do not know if i will hear back concerning this note...did YOU Receive any response FROM them,or not,at a later date.

I do NOT WANT to ask YOUR Home address,or YOUR Website,OVER the Internet. I HAVE some information that I could send to YOU. Do YOU HAVE a P.O. Box.(Post Office Box- for Letters Mail.)

I would LIKE TO be a Back-Up,with Information for YOU,if i may,WITH YOUR PERMISSION: Just in case YOU have no sucess at the Web-sites.

PLEASE! Respond BACK if YOU are interested.I will check back here October.19th-26th. Hoping tbNet keep it open. If i do not SEE any Reply by 26th October. I will KNOW YOU are not interested and CLOSE OUR corresponding Page.I will NOT HOLD any hard Feelings against YOU. Thank YOU!

Back at yard, I thank you very much for your kindness. I do not have a Box #. I have not yet gone on the sites you suggested but I will get to them soon. I am sure that I will find enough information there to satisfy what I need to know. It appears that some of the readers of this site do not like too much religious discussion, I respect their views so I am a bit cautious. Again, thanks a million.

Dearest Sunshine,

I receive YOUR message Loud & clear.I appreciate YOUR honesty.I hope YOU get the Info soon. YOU cannot ALLOWED Bullies to KEEP YOU SILENT.Or,else they will keep YOU under their shoes.When YOU have some thing to say or do,YOU cannot ALLOW FEAR to STOP You? The Roar of a LION,is always in-tim-i-dating.When YOU show him your bravery,he will not be hanging around for Ackee,Salt Fish,Dumplings and Orange Soda. No offence to YOU.But,I cannot stand to hear that Word, religion,or religious.A dry ness comes over me.Any thing,but that words. Even,the devil IS religious.

{edited by TBNet} Death is imminent to ALL PEOPLE. The Good Book said,WE MUST BE PRE-PARED to MEET thy GOD: Sunshine,Take excellent care of Your Self. Until,THEN.