Henrietta Lacks as a Medical Patient

Concentration 1: Medical History Henrietta Lacks, a world renown human, all because one suspicious tumor growing inside her a tumor that could leave her children motherless and change the future of medicine. She is simply called HeLa, the name given to the worlds first immortal human cells. These cells cut from her cervix just month before she died. She had started suffering from pain but being a strong woman and having racial issues she looked pass going to the clinic. But on January 29, 1951 she decided it had got to the point to where this unknown tumor had to been checked out. She just knew something didn't feel right to her. She had noticed blood when it was not her time of the month. She filled the tub with warm water and sat in it and spread her legs. She slid her finger in and felt around to feel a hard lump. It was deep inside as if a marble was lodged to the left of the opening to her womb. When she got in the room she was tested for syphilis but that came back negative.

So, the Gynecologists checked her background. She had breathing difficulty since childhood and recurrent throat infections and a deviated septum. She had also had a toothache for 5 years. AS well as asymptomatic neuro syphilis. Reason being she was tested for syphilis. Legs propped up in the stir ups, the doctor found an eroded hard mass the size of a nickel. It was noted to be shiny and purple and that bled at the slightest touch. The doctor sent it down the hall for labs. He told Henrietta to go home. Three months later she got the real news. All these doctors' visits in the past treated with medication. There she was faced with the truth. She had a full-fledged tumor growing inside her. Either the doctors didn't catch it at her past health examswhich seemed impossibleor it had grown at a terrifying rate. This began

Concentration 1: Medical use of radium Radium is a very useful technique used to treat all invasive cervical carcinomas. It was first discovered in the late 1800s, known to headlines as a positive cure for every disease. Doctors administered in its powered form to treat everything from sickness to ear infections. The only altercation being that any cells treated with radium, are destroyed. Patients who began taking this began dying. Radium causes mutations that can turn into cancer and at high doses can burn of the patient's skin. But at the same time while all this happens it still kills cancer cells. Howard Jones traveled the world collected more radium. Studies done by Jones himself found that radium was safer and more effective than surgery for treating an invasive cervical cancer. But it also often causes nausea, vomiting, weakness, and anemia. Henrietta went to get her first treatment for radium. The doctors were impressed with how well it was treating the tumor. Regardless her cervix was a bit red and inflamed from the first treatment. But the tumor was shrinking. But she had to get an X-ray every day for a month.

After on treatment and some time, the cancer had completely disappeared. She spent the next two days in the hospital, recovering from her first radium treatment. Then two days after, the doctor saw what looked like little rings of fried eggs whites around the clots at the bottom of each tube. The cells were growing but the doctor didn't think much of it. Because the other cells had survived for a while in the lab. But Henrietta's cells weren't merely surviving, they were growing. By the next morning they had doubled. She took a sample and left them over night. By then they had doubles again. Henrietta's cells began to grow into all the space they were given. There was a possibility these cells could stop growing at any minute. But they didn't stop. They kept growing like nothing had been seen before. Stacking hundreds on top of hundreds, accumulating by the millions.

Concentration 1: The Nature of HeLa Cells HeLa cells were named after Henrietta Lacks, famous for her never-ending growing cells. Theses cells were one of the most important things that happened to medicine in the past hundred years. On the other hand, stem cells are known for be able to help treat many diseases. HeLa cells and stem cells are alike and dislike in many ways. The main difference is between the two is that HeLa cells are immortal and stem cells are mortal. They both are being used to find many different diseases and cures for the human body. There is endless potential for finding all these new causes using both stem and HeLa cells. Even though there are very many similar things these cells both do, they still have their differences. One major difference is that stem cells are being used to treat diseases rather than just helping find cures for them.

On the other hand, HeLa cells are only being used to find such things. Because stem cells are being used to cure things, it has started to kill embryos. And also since HeLa cells are only used to find cures, and not to be used to cure with, they do not kill embryos. They both have their pros and cons when it comes to improving medical history. But when it comes to finding different ways to find diseases and cures for those diseases, is where these cells stand on the highest podium. Both these cells compare in that the initial reaction of the people was a medical breakthrough. In the 1800s when HeLa cells were introduced to doctors it was wild. These cells were the first cells known to man to be immortal. It's like the doctors couldn't get their hands off them. Now when stem cells are becoming popular, it reverses back to the HeLa cells. As back then they were such a hit, it is coming full circle with another medical breakthrough.

Cite this page