Where is the Mango Princess? is humorist and author Cathy Crimmins' account of her husband Alan Forman's boating accident that left Alan with significant brain injury, and the subsequent hospital care and rehabilitation efforts the family had to endure.

Cathy, Alan, and seven-year-old daughter Kelly won a raffle for a vacation at a remote location called Bob's Lake in Kingston, Ontario. The vacation went pretty miserably, and on the last day they were ready to head home. Alan took a boat trip to take away dirty laundry and garbage from their cabin. On the way, a reckless teenager drove over Alan's boat, knocking him in the head and causing massive bleeding and bruising. Kelly was in the boat and witnessed the accident.

Alan was airlifted to Kingston General Hospital, and there were many anxious days of Alan receiving intensive care. Family and friends arrived to support Cathy. Alan was stabilized, but she was told Alan's injuries were quite severe, and that he might not be the same person. There were uncertainties as to whether Alan could walk again, or exactly what motor and cognitive activities he could perform after rehabilitation.

Since the family was from Philadelphia, Alan was airlifted to the Hospital of the University of Philadelphia, or HUP. Trouble with approving the air ambulance represented the first fight in what would be a war with the family's U.S.-based health insurance HMO. Cathy strongly comes down on the side of the national health care system of Canada versus the United States' private-based health care. The HMO limited Alan's rehabilitation time, and denied benefits in other areas.

After some time at the HUP facility, Alan was transferred to Magee Rehabilitation Center. Alan was subjected to several weeks of various kinds of therapy. He learned to walk again, but in many areas he was different and struggling. He was uninhibited, yelling and swearing and at one point masturbating in public; he had short-term memory loss, and no sense of his own injury or its severity; he got angry and threw tantrums often; he could not make normal judgment calls; he had a poor sense of place and geography; and he performed poorly in social situations.

Alan went from Magee to a day hospital to finally home, with Cathy as his caregiver. Cathy described her struggles with adjusting to the "New Alan" and also of trying to deal with her traumatized daughter Kelly, who blamed herself for Alan's injury and who was verbally abused by Alan, because he could not help it.

In the end, Alan regained most of his abilities. He returned to part-time work, he could attend plays and parties, and in most areas he was able to compensate for his disability. However, his personality had changed permanently, and Cathy experienced a great sense of loss for the man she once knew.