Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

海拉細胞的不死傳奇 by Rebecca Skloot

119 reviews

ejthephoenix's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH!!! I’m so happy that Henrietta and her family have finally gotten some recognition after all this time and get to tell their story. I’m also really glad that this book is being included in my class at our school. I would definitely recommend reading this book no matter what you like to read! :) Non-fiction, fiction, science, theories, biographies, realistic fiction, and even non realistic fiction lovers will love this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Moderate: Drug use, Incest, Murder, Pregnancy, Slavery, Racism, Rape, Cursing, and Sexual assault

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, Outing, and Blood

hanlov's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Cancer, Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Racism

emblazedwords's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This book was so emotional and so well done. It was more than just a book on these immortal cells and how they were wrongly taken: it was also a history of the Lacks family themselves. Skloot gave us an intimate history on Henrietta as well as family, how her children were impacted by her death, and how they came to understand her legacy. 

I didn't realize until reading this book how new the concept of medical consent is. I also got more background history on Black people and their relationship with medicine, how it's hurt them and made them distrustful.

Definitely worth the hype!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Medical content

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Forced institutionalization

angela_iseli's review against another edition

emotional informative sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Medical content, Death, Medical trauma, Racism, and Death of parent

danileah07's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, Cancer, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Grief and Racism

Minor: Incest and Medical content

cj13's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Medical content, Grief, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Child death, Cancer, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism

Minor: Suicide

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

informative inspiring

4.5

"If our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?"

This story is part history text, science text, and biographical story, that keeps the reader engaged. It's heartbreaking to read what the family went through in their lifetime, but the developing friendship between Deborah and Rebecca was inspiring and heartfelt to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Medical content, Cancer, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual assault and Child abuse

oceanwriter's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

Thanks to random YouTube rabbit holes, I was somewhat familiar with Henrietta Lacks and HeLa cells going into this book. Had I realized there was a book at the time, I would have read this a lot sooner. 

 

The book discusses Henrietta Lacks’ life and death, the discovery of her extraordinary cells, the controversy surrounding the acquisition of those cells, and the author’s quest to make this woman known to the world. There’s also a great deal of focus on Henrietta’s children and the impact of her death and legacy on them. 

 

There’s a great mix of science and emotional family history. I do wish that the book had separated these things more, maybe telling Henrietta’s life all in one section before moving on to the author’s pursuit of her story (or vice versa). As it is, the first section of the book is back and forth from past to present. Thankfully, it smoothes out as the book goes on and the focus shifts to the present and her living children. 

 

Fascinating stuff here. It’s mind-blowing to me that anyone reading the book could access these cells at the click of a button. It breaks my heart that her family didn’t receive any of the revenue, especially when they had their own medical bills to pay. Even without the discovery of HeLa cells, their family story is one to be told. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Cancer, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Sexual assault, Racism, and Child abuse

Minor: Incest

tieflingmom's review against another edition

dark informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Hate crime, Cancer, Incest, Racism, Sexual assault, Medical content, Death, Sexism, and Terminal illness

summeryoder's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

 Reading Henrietta Lacks' story makes me feel that I am simultaneously honoring her memory and violating her privacy. 

  "But before she died, a surgeon took samples of her tumor and put them in a petri dish. Scientists had been trying to keep human cells alive in culture for decades, but they all eventually died. Henrietta's were different: they reproduced an entire generation every twenty-four hours, and they never stopped. They became the first immortal
human cells ever grown in a laboratory." 

 Henrietta Lacks never knew that her tissues had been taken for research. She never found out that her cells were used to study cancer, to formulate the polio vaccine, or that they were sent into outer space. 
 Her family didn't find out for over 20 years and the discovery put them on a journey of confusion and pain. 

 "When I go to the doctor for my checkups I always say my mother was HeLa. They get all excited, tell me stuff like how her cells helped make my blood pressure medicines and antidepression pills and how all this important stuff in science happen cause of her. But they don't never explain more than just sayin, Yeah, your mother was on the moon, she been in nuclear bombs and made that polio vaccine. I really don't know how she did all that, but I guess I'm glad she did, cause that mean she helpin lots of people. I think she would like that." -Deborah Lacks as told to Rebecca Skloot 

 Meticulously researched, this book gives much food for thought on the topics of racism, medical ethics, grief, trauma, and more. It's not a feel-good read, but it's an important one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Medical content

Moderate: Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Incest, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Alcoholism