A perfect match

Available for over a year

Journalist Ibby Caputo reveals some of the deep inequities in the American medical system through a highly personal story - asking why her friend died nine years after a life-saving bone marrow transplant. Thirteen years ago, Ibby underwent a bone marrow transplant in the US to treat an aggressive form of leukaemia. Because she is of Northern European descent, she believes she had a greater chance of survival, after finding a donor who was "a perfect match." Her friend, Terika Haughton, who was Jamaican, died of transplant-related causes in 2017. Terika did not have a perfect match, and after she died, Ibby explores how much that lack of a perfect match may have played a part in her death. Through these contrasting stories, Ibby explores race and ethnic disparities in healthcare. (Photo: Terika Haughton and Ibby Caputo)