The Wrong One Died

Inside America's emergency rooms as the safety net begins to fail.

America's emergency departments are where the nation's public health failures converge—and where the consequences are life or death. In The Wrong One Died, emergency physician Barbara Bond takes readers inside the ER to reveal a system stretched to the breaking point.

Through vivid, unflinching stories from the front lines, Dr. Bond captures the daily realities of emergency medicine: overcrowded waiting rooms, staff shortages, medication scarcities, and the constant risk of catastrophic error. She introduces readers to moments of extraordinary teamwork and lifesaving care alongside harrowing failures born not of negligence, but of systemic strain. The book's devastating title references one such moment, when the hospital mistakenly notified the wrong family of a child's death. Dr. Bond combines these intimate narratives with a clear-eyed examination of the emergency department as a complex ecosystem, absorbing the downstream effects of homelessness, addiction, mental health crises, and unequal access to care. This unflinching portrait of a system at its breaking point shows how chronic underfunding and workforce shortages threaten the safety net most Americans assume will be there when they need it.

This harrowing and urgent medical nonfiction tells a deeply human story that asks readers to confront an uncomfortable truth: unless meaningful action is taken soon, the emergency care system millions depend on may not be there when it matters most.