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Early in 1951,
while pregnant with her fifth child,
Henrietta Lacks knew something wasn't right.
She felt a knot in her stomach that she hadn't felt with her previous pregnancies.
After giving birth to her son Henrietta was sent to Johns Hopkins Hospital-
the only area hospital that treated black patients at that time.
While performing surgery
Henrietta's doctor discovered a tumor on her ***. Cells from her tumor were given
to researcher George ***
who "discovered that the cells did something they'd never seen before: They could be kept alive and grow."
The cells would come to be known as the Hela immortal cell line because they did
not die off after a few cell divisions like cells from other people did.
Sadly, Henrietta died just a few months after her surgery.
Her cell line was used to develop a vaccine for polio a short time after her death.
Since then, Hela cells have been used in the research of cancer, AIDS,
gene mapping and more.
Her tombstone reads,
"Here lies Henrietta Lacks (Hela). Her immortal cells will continue to help mankind forever."