KENTON COUNTY, Ky. —

A 15-year-old girl was sent to the emergency room after she was violently attacked on a Kenton County school bus on Thursday.

“I got stitches right here,” said Scott High School freshman Kyleigh Ketcham as she pointed to a spot over her left eye. “It's swollen all the way to the back of my head.”

The teen was riding home from school when she said someone from the back of the bus threw something at her. The mood was light, and kids were laughing as they pointed out the boy who was sitting behind Ketcham.

Ketcham says she poured water on the boy’s leg.

Video taken by another student shows the 17-year-old boy immediately leap from his seat and begin throwing a violent series of punches. About a dozen punches were unleashed onto the face of the 15-year-old girl.

“It just hurt really bad, but I was, like, trying to not cry in front of everyone. So, like, I didn't cry on the bus,” Ketcham said. “I was scared because, like, they could have seriously, like, done more damage.”

“It was just horrific, heartbreaking,” said the teen’s aunt, Corarinna Ketcham. “It was something out of a bad movie.”

“When he was done using her face as a punching bag, she got up and was shocked,” said the girl’s aunt.

Director of Public Information and Community Engagement for the Kenton County School District Jess Dykes released this statement about the incident:

"This type of behavior will not be tolerated and we take all incidents like this seriously. The Kenton County School District is following all policies and procedures with the district code of conduct. We are cooperating with local law enforcement on this investigation."

Taylor Mill police have filed misdemeanor assault charges against the boy.

Hospital emergency rooms have been overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients for over a year, but other emergencies are still happening too. Doctors are seeing patients who are sicker and more in need.

“We have seen a lot of patients come in sicker than they ever had before and the reason is that so many of them are fearful of coming to a place where COVID patients are, that they are delaying care for other life-threatening conditions. So, we’ve seen a lot of people come in after having their stroke instead of while they're having a stroke we can intervene on,” said Dr. Don Stader, an emergency physician at Swedish Medical Center.

People are delaying care for their emergencies.

“That anxiety of coming to a place with lots of COVID has kept a lot of people away inappropriately and to the detriment of their health,” Dr. Stader said.

While emergency departments have been battling waves of COVID-19, patients have been foregoing emergency care for conditions and illnesses they may have otherwise gone in for. Now, that backlog is catching up to emergency centers across the U.S.

“During COVID, we had this tremendous decrease in our volume initially, and since that time, what you've seen is a tremendous increase back to, I’d say, baseline numbers,” Dr. Stader said.

The number of patients may be returning to normal, but hospital conditions have not. There are fewer nurses and other hospital staff. And the coronavirus is lingering, affecting thousands of Americans every week.

“It’s the busiest it’s been in emergency medicine and emergency departments in over a decade,” said Dr. Richard Zane, an expert in emergency medicine at UCHealth. “We’re seeing what I believe to be almost two years of neglected health care. So, we’re seeing lots of car accidents, lots and lots of strokes, heart attacks, cancer, skin infections, the routine things that we see in emergency departments except we’re seeing much more of them...and we’re seeing increased severity.”

Dr. Zane said the backlog of regular care has caused this rush of sicker patients.

“We’re finding more advanced stages of everything,” he said. “Every condition when it manifests in an emergency condition gets more severe when that underlying condition is more severe.”

“We are seeing an increase in the number of patients who are having exacerbations of chronic illnesses,” said Dr. Bryce Snow, an emergency medicine physician at Providence Regional Medical Center in Washington.

He said due to shutdowns during the pandemic, regular checkups might also be backlogged.

“There’s a little bit of a backlog in appointments and procedures and screening tests because of everything being shut down temporarily.”

Another factor: life is slowly returning to normal. People are out and more prone to accidents.

“The more the people are out and about, the more their chances are of having a medical emergency,” said Akin Demehin, the Director of Policy at the American Hospital Association.

The association represents thousands of health facilities from small regional hospitals to big medical centers. Demehin said those who might be afraid to seek medical help shouldn’t be.

“Patients that need to come to the emergency department should feel confident in doing so,” he said.

“Don't delay seeking care because you're scared of COVID. We have protocols in hospitals to keep people safe,” Dr. Stader added.

As emergency physicians balance COVID-19 patients and other increasingly severe emergencies, Dr. Stader said continuing regular checkups and seeking help when needed is important.

“Go do it, please do. Because that's how we find and intervene on medical issues before they become emergencies,” he said.

Kevin Prindle has been spending a lot of nervous hours in an Indianapolis hospital.

"I never would have imagined that I would've spent, you know, two weeks of the first two months of my sons' lives in the ICU," he said.

Nurses and doctors are treating his 3-month-old twin sons, Harper and Kennedy, who were born premature and are now fighting a respiratory virus called RSV. Prindle believes the twins caught RSV from their older siblings.

"I'm running on coffee and prayers at the moment," Prindle said.

Doctors say RSV itself is fairly common. For most kids, symptoms are like the common cold. But in some cases RSV can inflame the lungs and make it tough to breathe. And the timing of the spike in cases happening now around the country is a bit of a medical mystery.

Newsy asked pediatric infectious disease specialist, Dr. Samuel Dominguez, how unusual it is for doctors to see the disease in the summer.

"This is extremely unusual," he said. "And during my whole career I've never ever seen RSV in the summer."

At Children's Hospital Colorado, they're blaming RSV for a 60 percent spike in kids admitted to intensive care units and as much as a 50 percent jump in emergency room visits.

"It is serious," Dominguez said. "And we, we are concerned about these kids and we want to keep them as healthy and get them ... better as quickly as possible."

RSV cases are climbing across the South, in the Southwest and Midwest and Kentucky, where doctors are warning parents to watch for red flags. 

Pediatrician Dr. Elizabeth Hawse said to look for "nostrils flaring, really moving the chest and stomach to breathe. Like, usually, we just breathe very easily with our chest. Babies can do something called grunting ... with every breath."

Why the summer spike? One theory is that, normally, older kids are exposed to RSV at school in winter months. But with masks, social distancing and remote learning last school year, young immune systems didn't get a chance to build up a defense.

"When you get exposed to viruses over and over again you get a little bit of a boost in your immune system against those viruses," Dominguez said. "Now we have a whole other year of kids who had no exposure to RSV, and so we have a large number of kids who are more susceptible to getting RSV and potentially more severe RSV.

Newsy asked what advice Dominguez has for parents as more kids got back into classrooms and whether they should be factoring in potential RSV exposure in deciding whether to have their children wear a mask at school.

"We support wearing masks in school," Dominguez said. "I think that's the best protection we can provide for actually all respiratory viruses and so it will not only protect kids from the spread of SARS COVID, too, but also protect kids against the spread of RSV."

While it is RSV that's driving the spike in admissions at places like Children's Hospital Colorado, doctors worry that kids who are exposed to the virus may be more susceptible to the impacts of COVID-19. That is why they are urging anyone who's around kids to get the COVID vaccine, wear a mask indoors and if a child is sick – don't send them to school. 

This story was originally reported by Clayton Sandell on Newsy.com.

Life for Peter Woullard and his wife, Patricia, was pretty normal a year ago.

"I was working in Mental Health at St. Joe's Hospital," said Peter. "I loved outdoors and loved to be around family and friends."

The New Orleans, Louisiana, native worked as a Behavioral Health Technician at St. Charles Parish Hospital.

When the pandemic hit, he became one of many who moved to the front line, putting himself at risk of being exposed to COVID-19.

"We never thought he'd actually test positive until he did on March 31, 2020," said Patricia.

Peter was working in the emergency room when he said he contracted the virus.

"I went to work that morning. I was feeling fine with a temperature of like, 96.7 or something like that," said Peter. "By 12 hours later, I had a temperature of 103."

Peter thought his symptoms would go away, but nine days later things got worse.

He was forced to go back to the hospital, but this time he wasn't clocking in.

He was fighting for his life.

"Within three hours that I got him there, they had to intubate. His kidney had already failed," said Patricia. "He had a bleed on his brain. He had dialysis. He coded six days later. So that's when the family was called in to come visit him because they didn't think he was gonna make it."

About two weeks after that Peter had a stroke, which made his recovery even more difficult.

"I have nerve damage from suffering from COVID and I'm not walking now and it's a year later," said Peter.

His wife said she was devastated.

"It was devastating to see my husband from a healthy man working to non-functional. And that was scary," said Patricia.

Peter spent five months in different medical facilities.

Finally, in September 2020, he came home to continue his recovery.

Fast forward to March 2021, the Woullard family finally stood tall for the first time in nearly a year as Peter took his first steps since contracting the virus.

"I'm like 6'3, almost 6'4. And just to just look over everything like I used to do, it was-- it was amazing," said Peter.

Peter has a long road ahead, but he and Patricia said their family is just grateful he is still here.

"I lose my breath easily now. And at one time, like I said, I enjoyed the outdoors and football and basketball and baseball and fishing on the lake front," said Peter. "And, you know, things like that, and just I'm grateful to be here by the grace of God."

Patricia says she is thankful God gave her a second chance with her husband.

"It's the blessing, it's the blessing," said Patricia.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — People are back outside and they’re enjoying it

“Today, in particular, a lot of the wildflowers have bloomed and it’s a little bit cooler today,” said Dave Kazmirski, a hiker out on a trail. “It just feels good to get out in the fresh air."

As COVID-19 restrictions are easing, people are spending more time outdoors. Last year, 237 million people visited national parks. That’s a big number, but it’s more than 90 million fewer people than visited in 2019.

2021 is already outpacing 2019 at parks like Yellowstone, where visits are up 14%.

That uptick has some preparing for more accidents when people are outside.

“We expect just more volume of people outside this year than were last year, and accidents happen,” said Theron Risinger.

Risinger runs the Banner Health emergency department in Greeley, Colorado.

“Lots of crazy stuff that we always see in the ER,” he said. “Helmets are really important, ATVs are really dangerous, especially like three-wheelers, and boat propellers and lawnmowers, you have to be really careful around both of those things.”

Risinger and his staff are bracing for more injuries this summer as more and more people start traveling and returning to the outdoors. But he hopes people will use their best judgment to stay safe.

“You’re on a bike, on a skateboard, you know, having your helmet on. If you’re out hiking, it’s making sure you have water and sunscreen, and someone knows where you are. If you’re boating, make sure you have a life jacket on. If you’re operating any machinery, making sure you’re not intoxicated,” Risinger said.

According to the National Safety Council, biking, exercising equipment, and ATVs cause the most injuries in the US.

But hikers on the trails are hoping for a safer summer.

“Everybody that we’ve seen around here seems pretty safe,” said Kazmirski.

“I think people just use common sense, just as you would previously. I don’t think there’s a difference now,” said Stefani Piotrowksi, another hiker.

But if you haven’t been as active during the pandemic, make sure you ease back into your usual activities.

“Certainly, if you were really out of shape, you know, making sure you go into it slowly, that you kind of walk before you run and kind of get back into shape,” said Risinger.

Risinger says his department isn’t necessarily expecting more heart attacks or injuries due to fatigue, but they are ready for it.

So, get back outside and enjoy the summer, but use common sense and try not to push it too hard your first couple of times back on a dusty trail.