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My bone flap’s entire journey was orchestrated by my father who was in Dubai as by now, my Mother was permanently based with me in the hospital.So, how in the world does one get a bone flap, which is quite literally a body part i.e. a portion of my skull, all the way across the Arabian Sea, all over 1930 kilometers. That, my readers, is a fun and learn story.Well, my bone flap was stuck back home in the hospital in Dubai, frozen in Cryo. The first problem was that the hospital didn’t have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for release of ‘live’ body parts for re-implantation outside the hospital. There only existed SOP’s that tended to every other need like Organ transplantation, re-fixing of bone flap while patient was still in the hospital, and so on. But, there didn’t seem to exist an SOP for transport of a patient’s ‘live’ body part in the absence of the patient, leave alone to such a long distance, away from home ground destination. That was the first issue that had to be resolved. My father had to co-ordinate with the relevant Ministry and the hospital management, who were extremely cooperative, to create an SOP urgently within a day (as the surgery date was already planned) that would enable my bone to be released from their custody.The second issue that had to be resolved was the logistics – how were we going to transport my bone flap from Dubai to Mumbai? This included finding a courier company that would be capable of transporting my bone safely and getting custom clearance. Also, the third issue was, even if we did find a courier company who would agree to do the needful, how would we pack the bone flap without “killing” it? It would have to be transported in a temperature-controlled environment necessary for its preservation.After discussion with several courier companies in Dubai, my dad finally found a company who was handling medical samples. First hurdle crossed. The next one was finding a right classification for the bone to come under. The bone was not falling into a medical sample, nor remains of human body nor an organ, so after discussion and assistance from one of the kind Samaritans from the courier company (who was extremely helpful all throughout), we found the right classification. Now, how would we get customs’ clearance? We were going to transport a live human body part (not a dead one). This was sorted out with the help of the same good Samaritan and the hospital authorities. Well, now that the first two tasks were dealt with, all that was left to be tackled was the third one, the packing of the bone flap. Almost everyone was as clueless as we were on what temperature and what kind of packing the bone flap had to be kept in for its preservation. There were deliberations held over whether we should use Dry Ice or liquid Nitrogen (there is almost a 120° C difference between the two, in case you were wondering) and we decided to use liquid Nitrogen as a lower temperature is always better for preservation. Then we hit another roadblock as to finding a container that supports liquid Nitrogen for transportation, as it is not a very common practice. The good Samaritan came to the rescue (again) and arranged a liquid Nitrogen box from ‘somewhere’. Phew! And all this was going on while I was chilling in the hospital.Once everything was arranged, the “bone flap” was packed and delivered to the airport facility of the courier company with all the necessary documentation. Back in Mumbai, my uncle, who has a Logistics company, arranged for the quick release of the bone flap from the Customs and brought it to the hospital. Of course, the bone flap was taken by the hospital authorities and handed over to the OT for sterilization and eventually, the surgery.I added one more lesson to my list – never give up, once again! The day was coming soon. To fix the bone flap, which was removed on 17^th August 2016!! Did it finally happen? My bone flap’s journey was almost over, but mine wasn’t. Keep reading guys J