How I Doctor with Dr. Graham Walker 99 Ways to Avoid Death: Lessons from Author and ER Physician Dr. Ashely Alker
Mar 5, 2026
Dr. Ashley Alker, an emergency physician, author, and medical consultant, shares how confronting death shaped her work. She discusses why ER clinicians carry losses more than saves. She explains using storytelling to translate medicine for the public. She reflects on prevention, communicating risks, and diversifying work to combat burnout.
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Death Was Real Early In Her Life
- Ashley Alker treats death as an early, present reality shaped by family losses rather than an abstract concept.
- Losing her mother in her 20s pushed her to become a medical translator for her family and influenced her career choice and worldview.
Lost Patients Stick More Than Great Saves
- Ashley remembers patients she couldn't save more vividly than her biggest resuscitation successes.
- Those unresolved losses motivated her to write 99 Ways to Die to translate painful ER lessons into preventable actions.
Prevention Hides Its Own Success
- Vaccines have prevented immense suffering that modern readers often can't imagine because they lack direct memory of pre-vaccine disease.
- Ashley cites 156 million lives saved in 50 years to show prevention prevents disability as well as death.
