Am I wrong for being furious with an employee who ruined our Q4 and then bailed on me?

I have a small but successful gaming company, and we work very hard on the products we make. But the last quarter of the year was a disaster by all measures. One of my senior employees made a huge mistake in our most important game. The main electronic component was faulty, which meant thousands of units were delivered to customers dead on arrival. The game literally wouldn't even turn on. And of course, as you can imagine, this led major retailers to cancel their orders, and we closed the quarter with a massive loss.

The meeting we were supposed to have to clean up this mess was crucial. I traveled specifically for it, which made me miss my son's school recital. I was supposed to be there, and it was very important to my family. When it was time for the meeting, this employee simply said he had to leave because of a "family emergency." And he left. He left me sitting alone in the conference room while the company was bleeding money because of him. My day was already ruined, and he just simply disappears.

This guy has been with the company for about ten years. I've let a lot of small things slide over the years because, on the whole, he's good at his job, but this time it was a catastrophe. I felt like it was a huge slap in the face. I've always tried to be flexible, but this time was different.

My wife thinks I'm overreacting to this and that I should be more sympathetic, especially since it was right before the holidays. But I feel that at a certain point, one has to draw a line. The future and survival of the company were at stake.

So am I wrong for expecting him to take responsibility for his mistake while everything was on fire? Or was his move the straw that broke the camel's back?