CLEVELAND — On Friday, WEWS talked to Len Honacki, a Cleveland man who was waiting on his heart medication after a United States Postal Service delay.
“I was a little worried how long I can go without before I call the doctor and say ‘Hey what’s going on and what do I need to do?'” he said.
Tracking records show that his medicine had been to Cincinnati, Washington D.C., and Maryland.
“The post office had a series of mishaps," he said.
When Alicia Rauckhorst, the Northern Ohio marketing manager for USPS, learned of Honacki’s issue, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
“Somewhere in there, inadvertently, it got sent to Maryland,” she said. “As soon as it got back, no matter where it was, I was going to let him know.”
She called Honacki herself.
“She called me just to apologize and she said ‘I will do whatever it takes to find your meds and I would get it to you,’” he said. “When someone says ‘I'll drive to Cincinnati 4 hours and pick it up and bring it 4 hours back.’ To me, I mean, come on, that’s above and beyond.”
Luckily, Rauckhorst made sure his meds arrived in Cleveland Saturday night and Sunday morning she made a special delivery.
“I went up there and picked up the package called it when I had it in hand and said ‘Hey, I’m on my way to your house to bring you this medicine.’”
Honacki was shocked.
“She comes to the front door and delivers the mail right to me. It was phenomenal,” he said.
And while he was floored by the kindness, he still worries about other people who may not have their medication in time.
“There are good people out there that do wonderful things,” he said.”Maybe they could come up with some sort of system where they had a priority-med service so that if they scan it, it would automatically say this is a medicine.”
Rauckhorst said they know every second is important when delivering packages to people.
“We don’t necessarily prioritize, in that regard, but we know that this time of year, especially being in a pandemic, everything is critical and we are doing everything we can to get every single package, letter to the customer,” she said.
RELATED: Man's heart medication among deliveries impacted by USPS shipping delays, issues
This story originally reported by Jessi Schultz on News5Cleveland.com.
