Henrietta Lacks's Medical Misdiagnosis and Terminal Decline

Key Insight

In early June, Henrietta repeatedly expressed her belief that cancer was spreading, but doctors found 'nothing wrong' and noted she felt 'fairly well' despite 'vague lower abdominal discomfort.' They recorded 'No evidence of recurrence' and instructed her to 'Return in one month.' This pattern continued weeks later when her 'discomfort' intensified to an 'ache' on both sides, yet the medical entry remained identical: 'No evidence of recurrence. Return in one month.'

Two and a half weeks after the second dismissal, Henrietta's abdomen hurt significantly, and she could barely urinate or walk. After a hospital visit for bladder catheterization, she was sent home. Three days later, upon her return, a doctor palpated a 'stony hard' mass. An X-ray confirmed it was attached to her pelvic wall, nearly blocking her urethra, leading to an 'Inoperable' diagnosis. Just weeks after being deemed healthy, a doctor noted she 'looks chronically ill' and 'is obviously in pain,' sending her home to bed.

Stone-hard tumors rapidly filled her abdomen, located on her uterus, both kidneys, and urethra, resulting in a 'quite poor' prognosis just one month after being declared fine. Doctors increased her daily radiation doses, hoping to shrink tumors and alleviate pain until her death; this caused her abdomen's skin to burn 'blacker and blacker' with worsening pain. Admitted to the hospital on August 8, a week after her thirty-first birthday, doctors struggled to manage her suffering. 'Demerol does not seem to touch the pain,' morphine 'doesn't help too much either,' and 'Alcohol injections ended in failure,' though Dromoran offered temporary relief. New tumors emerged daily on her lymph nodes, hip bones, and labia, and she frequently had a fever up to 105. Radiation treatment ceased, with doctors noting 'Henrietta is still a miserable specimen,' groaning, constantly nauseated, and vomiting everything.