“People have been out here waiting for a couple hours, which is heartbreaking.”

Dr. Erica Michiels, who directs pediatric emergency medicine at Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., regarding the growing wait in the ER as hospitals across the nation have been stretched beyond capacity by waves of RSV, a respiratory virus, and the flu. Typically the Devos Children’s ER sees about 140 kids a day, but recently in mid-December the visits have reached 253. (NPR — Dec. 15, 2022)