"Upset by my husbands treatment in A&E at St James's University Hospital"

My husband was taken to A&E with stomach pains in March, after ct scan and x ray they said he had an enlarged appendix...keep an eye on it and was sent home. In June we called ambulance and we were taken to A&E again, we explained he had enlarged appendix and after spending most of the night in A&E he was told he was constipated and sent home again with buscopan to help with spasms and cramps.

This week we had to call ambulance again with the exact same problem, the Dr in A&E was told about the enlarged appendix...to which they said 'that is the same as saying someone has an enlarged toe it doesn't mean much'!!!

After 4 hours the doctor couldn't decide whether to send us home or not so we were sent to clinical decisions where my husband was told to sit in the wheelchair and was not given a bed, I explained my husband was disabled and in a lot of pain and he was eventually allowed to have a bed....another 3 or 4 hours later we saw the original doctor who said my husband's blood test showed he was fighting infection so they had spoken to a surgeon who would see my husband.

We were sent to a ward where we were treated with respect and were told it was more than likely appendicitis and they would operate the following morning. In the morning they told my husband they would do a CT scan so he was told they wouldn't operate.

Before he was taken for scan a senior doctor/consultant saw my husband and said 'forget the scan lets get him into surgery' they said they would put a camera through his belly button and see what was going on...the surgeon found my husbands appendix in a real MESS and removed them and flushed his system out.

It took 9 months of my husband suffering pain before anything was done, I believe the action taken this week to put a camera in should have been done when he presented with this problem in March. Luckily for my husband his appendix did not burst in the meantime.

We found the experience at A&E to be unsatisfactory, we felt we were not treated with respect and if the last doctor we saw there had had his way he would have sent us home with buscopan again as he said he thought my husband had irritable bowels.

I think St James' University Hospital in Leeds really need to change the way they treat patients in their care, they seem to think you are making it up until they have proof you are ill!

The aftercare on the ward made up for mistakes made by A&E.