"My son's appendix nightmare"

My 13 year old son was admitted to Barnsley General Hospital on the 13th May 2009 at around 7pm with suspected Appendicitis. On the 14th May at around 10am it was decided that he was to have an operation to remove his appendix early afternoon that day, which left my son very upset. After hours of watching my son suffer both physically and mentally he was at last seen by the Anaesthetist at 4pm_ish, where he informed us it would probably be an hour before he went down to the operating theatre. 2 hours later we were informed it would be, in the next 10 minutes. 30 minutes later we were told that we would have to wait even longer as there was an emergency caesarian to do. By now, my son was in more pain and in more distress. At around 9.30pm, we were told he was going down to theatre. The nurses were doing all the necessary checks and we were on the move, only to be stopped in our tracks and told we would have to wait even longer, as there was another emergency caesarian. It was turned 11.30pm when my son finally had his operation. By now I had lost all track of time and it was probably between 1-2 hours later that I was informed the operation was over and that my son had suffered a burst Appendix. My son and I spent just short of 6 days in hospital. He had antibiotics intravenously and suffered immense pain. It is a week since his operation and he is still suffering, his recovery is very slow. Such a simple operation when done in time, it could have been near fatal.

Surely this is the NHS at its worst, totally unacceptable. P.S. The nurses were excellent!