Dead on arrival (DOA) refers to a term commonly used in medical and emergency services to describe a person who has arrived at a medical facility or has been found dead but was already deceased upon arrival. The phrase can also be metaphorically applied to non-living entities such as projects, proposals, or ideas that are deemed to lack viability or fail to meet expectations from the very beginning.
In a medical context, dead on arrival implies that a person has died before reaching the appropriate healthcare facility or that they were already deceased upon arrival. DOA typically applies to situations involving sudden deaths or emergencies, such as accidents, cardiac arrests, or severe trauma. When a person is declared dead on arrival, it indicates that resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful or that the injuries sustained were too severe to be survivable.
Metaphorically, dead on arrival is used to describe concepts, plans, or endeavors that are deemed hopeless or ineffective from their inception. It suggests that these entities lack the ability to succeed or fulfill their intended purpose. Often employed in business or creative contexts, dead on arrival indicates that an idea or proposal is ill-conceived, impractical, or flawed, rendering it unlikely to gain support or achieve success.
Overall, dead on arrival represents a definitive state of unviability or failure – applied either to the physical condition of a deceased person upon arrival at a healthcare facility, or to concepts and proposals that are regarded as fundamentally unworkable or unlikely to succeed.
