The Senseless Death of Tobeka Daki
Auctioning Health and Life to the Highest Bidders

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/17/the-senseless-death-of-tobeka-daki-auctioning-health-and-life-to-the-highest-bidders/
Date Written:  2016-12-17
Publisher:  Counterpunch
Year Published:  2016
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20228

Details the circumstances of the death of Tobeka Daki of South Africa, implicating the exorbitant drug prices of pharmaceutical corporations.

Abstract: 
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Excerpts:

Tobeka was enrolled in her country's medical insurance program. But many physicians in South Africa and other locations don’t even tell their patients with HER2 breast cancer about the existence of Herceptin. No point getting their hopes up about a medicine they and their nation's health program can never afford.

In her last months of life, Tobeka devoted many precious, dwindling hours to telling her story. Ten million people die each year due to not having access to the medicines that would save them -- a number higher than the population of New York City. But those victims usually suffer and die in anonymity. So Tobeka allowed her own face and name to be used to break through the abstraction of statistics.