I know how you feel; I had an operation cancelled today and it has not left anyone feeling anything but depressed. And do you know who's fault this cancellation was? A cooking furrier's (Sp)! I won't mention WHICH couriers but let's just say a series of initials had us all speculating on what they may stand for. This is a patient with a very serious condition for which we measured, designed and manufactured a special, one-off device to treat, sterilised it and placed in in the trustworthy hands of a courier to deliver to the necessary hospital....and it didn't arrive! The only surgeon and Radiologist who could operate on this patient can only work together one day a week (today) and we (me) were to be there in an advisory capacity (I oversee these implants every day, they do maybe four a year so need a bit of guidance). To wait and wait and wait and get no reliable information from the couriers was intensely frustrating. We saw the window of operative opportunity on this poor patient close down as more cases were operated on while this patient's chances diminished hour by hour. Eventually, no anaesthetic cover meant even if the device did arrive - it didn't - the operation couldn't go ahead. So very, very sad for all concerned. I can honestly see this mess resulting in this patient's death.