Thread by @rochelleriley

DETROIT _ Had an interesting experience during what I hope will be my last hospital visit for a while. When it was time for me to be discharged, a clerk came in to get payment for the bill and have me sign a form to consent for doctors to treat me.
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I gave her my credit card, but refused to sign a machine not attached to a laminated form. Why? This sentence: I authorize the facility to retain and preserve... specimens for research, scientific, teaching purposes as well as other tests not related to my diagnosis.
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If we taught Black history, you'd know why. In 1951, a young mother named #HenriettaLacks visited The Johns Hopkins Hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding. She had a large, malignant tumor on her cervix & Hopkins was one of few hospitals treating poor African-Americans.
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#HenriettaLacks had radium treatments, the best medical treatment available at the time. A sample of her cancer cells retrieved during a biopsy were sent to Dr. George Gey's nearby tissue lab.
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For years, Dr. Gey, a prominent cancer and virus researcher, had been collecting cells from all cervical cancer patients - regardless of race or socioeconomic status. But each sample quickly died. #HenriettaLacks' cells did not.
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What Dr. Gey would soon discover was that #HenriettaLacks' cells were unlike any he had ever seen: where other cells would die, Mrs. Lacks' cells doubled every 20 to 24 hours.
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#HenriettaLacks' incredible cells— nicknamed "HeLa" cells, from the first two letters of her first and last names — are used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without experimenting on humans.
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#HenriettaLacks' #HeLa cells have been used to test the effects of radiation and poisons, to study the human genome, to learn more about how viruses work, and played a crucial role in the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines. Yes, the #Covid19 vaccines.
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Even though the origins of #HeLa immortal cell lines were known to researchers, the #HenriettaLacks family was not made aware of the line's existence until 1975, after they were used for commercial purposes, making billions for Big Pharma.
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#HenriettaLacks passed away on October 4, 1951. She was 31. Her cells continue to impact the world 70 years later. Yet, her family was never compensated, and what was done still raises questions about patient rights and compensation.
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#HenriettaLacks gave the world the first immortal cells - cells that do not die & could be multiplied in a lab. But her family was never compensated. Johns Hopkins says it never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa and does not own the rights.
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Instead, Johns Hopkins offered HeLa cells freely and widely for scientific research. On its web site and in its conscience, "Johns Hopkins applauds and regularly participates in efforts to raise awareness of the life and story of Henrietta Lacks.
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"Having reviewed our interactions with #HenriettaLacks & the Lacks family over more than 50 years, we found that Johns Hopkins could have – & should have – done more to inform & work w/members of Henrietta Lacks’ family out of respect for them, their privacy and their interests..

"...Though the collection and use of #HenriettaLacks’ cells in research was an acceptable and legal practice in the 1950s, such a practice would not happen today without the patient’s consent." - Johns Hopkins web site explainer on the Lacks case.
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...which brings me to last Wednesday at a local, respected hospital where a nurse initially told me it was illegal to not sign the consent form, then said hospital policy required that I sign it, then finally relented and said she knew the #HenriettaLacks case and understood.
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I believe in teaching hospitals. I pray for our front-line workers who are under siege, which is why I mention none of the names of those I interacted with - the nonchalant doctor I saw for 1 minute and 20 seconds, a second clerk who yelled at me for not signing the form...
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I did not sign the form. I brought it home to frame & take with me when I speak to classes as I join others who are fighting to teach Black history, which is just a part of American history that racists do not want you to know. I did not sign it to honor #HenriettaLacks.
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And the doc who never came back to check on me or give me the results of my tests. He sent back some Tylenol without saying why. I knew why. If I took it, it was implied consent. I took it. But if my cells are like #HenriettaLacks, my family knows Black history & her story.
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#HenriettaLacks was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the #HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line, the most important cell line in medical research because It reproduces indefinitely.
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#HenriettaLacks and her "immortal" cells have been a fixture in the medical research community for decades: They helped develop the polio vaccine in the 1950s; traveled to space to see how cells react in zero gravity; and aided reducing HPV infections...
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Because #HenriettaLacks' HeLa cells could be grown continuously in labs, researchers rely heavily on them for experiments. It is no longer the only immortalized cell line, but is still the most widely used showing up in more than 110,000 scientific publications, the NIH says.
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#HenriettaLacks' cells have been used to understand the processes behind cell growth ... and help researchers understand a range of diseases. They served as the foundation for developing modern vaccines and been used to develop medical techniques like in vitro fertilization.
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#HenriettaLacks' #HeLa cells, one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine, deserve to be included in teaching American history. health.com/mind-body/henr…
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So when someone tells you the lie that Black History is critical race theory and your children will be scarred by it, encourage them to read a book, or watch @Oprah's powerful TV movie about #HenriettaLacks, which like #Roots, made history real. She changed the world. #SayHerName

Oh, and one more thing: On Oct. 4, 2021 the 70th anniversary of her death, #HenriettaLacks' family filed a federal lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific claiming unjust enrichment and nonconsensual use of her cells and tissue samples. abcn.ws/3GNIt6B

Imagine the lives that #HenriettaLacks' children & grandchildren & great-grandchildren might have lived had people known of her contribution to medicine. Wow, they might have been treated like Fords or Rockefellers or Breckenridges, thanked for their ancestor saving the world.