![]() ![]() And so it was that Henrietta became known to the general public as Helen Lane or Larson until the '70s.Skloot tells us that it's possible that Gey let the identity mistake stand to throw reporters off the trail leading to the real Henrietta Lacks.She was determined to make sure that no one took advantage of them again and she was determined to make sure that Henrietta's legacy was respected and protected. When Gey and the head of public relations at Hopkins edited the story, they didn't correct the misrepresented name or the timing of the tissue extraction. The experience with Cofield caused Deborah to become very protective of her family and their rights.The editor also said that the cells were taken from her after her death.Still, there was mention in the article about a "Helen L.," the generous donor of the HeLa cells.When the editor of Collier's magazine asked Gey for an interview some time later, Gey truly didn't want to include Henrietta's personal story along with the information about cell culture.But Gey also never explained to reporters that they'd gotten Henrietta's name wrong.He'd talk about the cells all they wanted, but not the woman. When Gey was contacted by other media-types who wanted Henrietta's full story, he told them to leave it out.Mostly, this was because the docs at Hopkins didn't really want the patient's name revealed. Nobody Gey knew would own up to the mistake.She was called Henrietta Lakes (probably a phonetic spelling of a southern pronunciation). ![]() Lots of people knew Henrietta's name, but the first mention in the media contained a mistake. ![]()
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