Henrietta Lacks Timeline and Summary
MoreHenrietta Lacks Timeline and Summary
- Henrietta's mother dies when she's four years old, and she's raised by her grandparents in Clover, Virginia.
- Henrietta gives birth to her first child with her cousin Day when she's 14.
- She gives birth to Elsie two years later.
- Henrietta marries Day when she's 20.
- Day and Henrietta move with their young family to Turner Station.
- At 30, after the birth of her fifth child, she goes to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to have a "knot on her womb" diagnosed.
- Henrietta's biopsy is analyzed by Howard Jones. She doesn't tell her family about the cancer.
- She undergoes radium treatment for cervical cancer—and her tissues are sent to Gey's lab.
- Henrietta starts x-ray therapy and learns that she can't have any more children.
- She becomes very ill and finally reveals to her cousins the extent of her illness, showing them the burn marks from radiation.
- Henrietta returns to Hopkins and learns that her cancer is inoperable. She's sent home.
- She undergoes more radiation treatments to ease her pain. More cells are taken from her cervix and sent to the lab.
- Doctors can't find medication to treat Henrietta's pain adequately. She has tumors throughout her body.
- As she's dying at Hopkins, she tells her sister Gladys to make sure Day takes care of the kids.
- Henrietta dies on October 4, 1951 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.