Chapter 14: Helen Lane

The media wanted to know who Henrietta was and so many knew her name so it was no question as to whether it'd be leaked or not. On November 2, 1953 an article in Minneapolis Star was the first to write about the woman behind the cells, Henrietta Lakes. It would have been a good story if they got her name right. No one knows who leaked Henrietta's name but Gey and his associates were relieved by the misinformation. Only two days after that was published a press officer at NFIP wanted to write a story about Henrietta and he wanted her name and interviews with her family. Gey knew that that couldn't happen because then Henrietta's family would know that her cells were taken without permission and that they were still alive. So they told Berg, the press officer, that he couldn't use the name and that it had to stay confidential. Berg didn't accept the conditions and didn't write he story but soon after a reporter from Collier's magazine wanted to write the same story that Berg wanted. He ended up writing it but using the name Helen L. and said the cells were taken after her death. After that she was always know as Helen Lane or sometimes Helen Larson but never as Henrietta Lacks. "And because of that her family had no idea her cells were alive."