Dead on arrival (D.O.A.), also dead in the field and brought in dead (B.I.D.), is a term used to indicate that a patient was found to be already clinically dead upon the arrival of professional medical assistance, often in the form of first responders such as emergency medical technicians, paramedics, or police.
D.O.A. is also frequently used as slang to indicate a new item that was received broken, or that an idea or concept is a nonstarter. In this case, the acronym stands for "Defective on Arrival".
In another context, "dead on arrival" may be used to describe an idea or product that is considered to be fundamentally flawed, and therefore viewed as an utter failure from the start.