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    Insulin's High Cost Leads To Lethal Rationing

    Diabetic ketoacidosis is a terrible way to die. It's what happens when you don't have enough insulin. Your blood sugar gets so high that your blood becomes highly acidic, your cells dehydrate and your body stops functioning. Diabetic ketoacidosis is how Nicole Smith-Holt lost her son. Three days before his payday. Because he couldn't afford his insulin.

    Roger J. Smith
    by Roger J. Smith

    Community Contributor

    Bram Sable-Smith for NPR / Via npr.org

    "It shouldn't have happened," says Nicole Smith-Holt of Richfield, Minn., gazing at the death certificate of her son Alec Raeshawn Smith.

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