American exceptionalism would not allow for this story to be told, that is, the story of Henrietta Lacks. Her life began in a shack in Roanoke, Virginia, now, what her mother, Eliza Lacks Pleasant, did not know was that she had just birthed a medical marvel. It would be decades later that Henrietta’s genetic code would prove to be most astonishing.

In 1950, already a mother of four, Henrietta was pregnant again, but this time felt different, according to her. Instinctually, she knew something was wrong, but those around her assured her it was just the pains of pregnancy. However, after the birth of her fifth child her discomfort remained.

It wasn’t until almost a year later that Henrietta sought medical help specifically for the abdominal pain she was experiencing. In 1951, with a referral from a local doctor, Henrietta checked in to the Public Health Ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital—the ward was one of the few places in the country black patients could be seen for free and without being turned away.

Dr. Howard Jones was one of the first to see Henrietta. He discovered that she did, indeed, have a most unusual tumor growing inside of her. At the behest of Johns Hopkins researcher, cells from this cervical cancer would later be sent to the Johns Hopkins Tissue Culture Research Facility. It was common practice at the time to bypass patient consent—especially the consent of those seen at the public health ward—and conduct research. The sample from Henrietta’s tumor was being used without her knowledge, much less her consent, knowledge she would die without in 1951.

Upon arrival at the research facility, Henrietta’s cells, dubbed “HeLa” cells for her first and last name, proved to be extraordinary. Where other cells would die, HeLa cells would multiply. This made Henrietta’s cells the first immortal cell line ever discovered, thus, infinite test and research could be performed with them.

Since then, HeLa cells have been used to assist with research and creating treatments for an innumerable amount of diseases and medical phenomena; AIDS, the effects of radiation, HPV vaccination, Polio eradication, genome mapping, and so on. It wasn’t until 1971 that Lacks’ family was made aware of their mother’s contribution and decades before they understood the impact of this contribution.

It almost feels inappropriate to reduce Lacks existence to her contributions to modern medicine. Her existence as a mid-century woman, a black woman, descendent of enslaved people, is a testament to destiny. When the circumstances of the world around her suggested she was nothing, an insignificant morsel, her biology proved otherwise.