Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels -- Lindsey Fitzharris, Hardcover

From New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris, a riveting middle grade nonfiction book about medicine's most fascinating failures and dead ends.

Beheadings! Bloodletting! Bodysnatching! Journey down a snaking road bristling with medicine's most astonishing "dead ends." Marvel at the diagnoses, experiments, and treatments that were frequently useless, and often harmful, but that sometimes led doctors to discoveries that changed the world for the better.

Enjoy a whirlwind tour of the human body-from brain, to heart, to limbs-during which New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Fitzharris and caricaturist Adrian Teal will guide you through centuries of medical mistakes, festooned with riveting facts, pitch-perfect humor, and vivid illustrations. Celebrate the flukes, flops, and failures that have given science a better understanding of our bodies and ways to treat them.

This fascinating book of foul-ups is sure to delight young readers, and inspire them to embrace their failures, too!

Author: Lindsey Fitzharris, Adrian Teal
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 10/14/2025
Pages: 160
Binding Type: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781547615025
Audience: Ages 9-12

About the Author

Lindsey Fitzharris is a New York Times bestselling author of The Butchering Art and The Facemaker, and the co-author of Plague-Busters! She holds a Ph.D. in the history of science and medicine from Oxford University, and regularly writes for major publications. She is also the writer and host of the Smithsonian TV series The Curious Life and Death of....
drlindseyfitzharris.com

Adrian Teal is a caricaturist, cartoonist, fine artist, and illustrator. He is the co-author and illustrator of Plague-Busters! His work has appeared in numerous TV shows, including Spitting Image and Big Heads. He has produced art for publications such as the Sunday Telegraph, the Times, the Guardian, Time Out, and the Daily Mail.
adrianteal.com