He knows he may see someone’s fist in his face, as has happened in the past, or have to endure a barrage of angry words screamed at him.

“I get threatened every day at work,” said Kelsch. “They say, ‘I know where you live; I’ll be visiting you.’ They say they’re going to come and kill me; they say, ‘I know where you park and what you drive.’ It’s pretty awful what we deal with. I’ve been spit on.”

These incidents are not new to Kelsch, or likely anyone who works in emergency medicine. Patients, facing extreme and life-threatening pain, can lash out, as can stressed and grieving families. Violence against health care workers has been on the rise nationally for years.

But during the COVID-19 pandemic, the frequency of these attacks have soared, Kelsch said.

“I started working in the [emergency room] 11 years ago, and every year it was slightly getting worse with patients verbally assaulting us, physically assaulting us — but since the pandemic started, it has gone up tenfold,” he said.