"Cancelled cardiac surgery affects the whole family"

We have just come back from Sheffield Northern General Hospital. We took Dad in yesterday and he spent the night in hospital ready for his surgery today.

We went in this morning to see my Dad, before he went to theatre for cardiac surgery. The time that he was scheduled to go down came and went. Then someone came to see us and told us the operation was to be rescheduled because there wasn't a bed in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). They couldn't give us a definite date, but it is likely to be in 10days time.

I have been having annual leave to help support my family, my sister has come over from America with her husband, my mum's guide dog has gone into kennels, my other sister has bought train tickets to travel up tomorrow to visit with Dad. My point about this is that Dad's surgery hasn't just affected him, it's affected all of us in the family.

You cannot explain to people what it does to you, the anger and emotions that are raised in a person. My mother broke down and cried as soon as she heard, and then she became very angry and I found myself making excuses for a system that is inexcusable. This should not be allowed to happen.