Saving Nick's finger

In April last year, Nick broke his little finger while playing basketball. It was a difficult break as it was right into the joint. He ended up needing surgery to pin the fragment of bone back into place, but he was left with a deformed finger, which won't straighten, is twisted and is very painful. There is still a stitch inside it which we can see, and he can't use the finger at all. We spent numerous hours going back to the surgeon's who "fixed" it, with their final comment being - "come back when he is 18 and we will see if it needs to be amputated". So I tried to see a private surgeon but my GP wouldn't send the referral (small town and he didn't want to offend the original surgeon by referring elsewhere). We ended up going back to the original surgeon and demanding a referral to the Children's Hospital to see a Paediatric orthopaedic specialist. They won't tell us straight out, but it seems as if the tendons in his finger had been cut during the previous surgery. They think they can fix it but we now have to play their game - going to see them every 6 weeks until they decide what to do! So frustrating to say the least. Yesterday we went again to see one of the Occupational Therapists at the hospital. He made another splint for Nick to wear. Now, I am an OT too - and I know that this isn't going to work. When I asked him, he said there was about a 10% chance of it doing any good....well why bother?!! So here it is - a whole year from when he first broke his finger and it still isn't fixed. Guess we'll just have to keep on playing their game, taking time off work and school to attend useless appointments until they work out what to do. Just a little rant about the state of our health system!! Don't let me get started on my knee injury which happened last September and still hasn't been sorted. Yes - I'm going up there every 6 weeks for that too!