SAN DIEGO -- Emergency rooms in San Diego are experiencing a large volume of patients, mostly children, inundating doctors and medical staff, 10News reported.

10News learned that many parents are not taking any chances in light of the death of a 5-year-old Otay Mesa girl as a result of the H1N1 virus.

Doctors and nurses at Rady Children's hospital said another reason they are seeing so many patients is because people are driving from far away and bypassing local ERs.

Tracey Burnett grabbed her mask from a dispenser just inside the Children's Hospital ER the moment she and her daughter arrived. She was afraid her daughter, who was being seen for a staph infection, could get very sick and die.

Josie Pagan's child just had eye surgery, but she told 10News there is no chance she is going inside the emergency room. Instead, she and her daughter wait outside on a concrete bench.

"My kid's worth too much to me for that. I don't want my baby dying, and I've got other kids. No, I couldn't do that," said Pagan.

On a normal day, Rady Children's Hospital officials said they see about 150 children in their ER. On Thursday, they saw 280. Since midnight Friday, they have seen 236.

"We've tried really hard to decrease our wait times and we're staffing up. We have more nurses on board, more physicians. But it's a physical space issue as well," said Ghazala Sharieff of Rady Children's Hospital.

Of the 280 children seen on Thursday, hospital officials said 120 exhibited flu-like symptoms but did not need treatment.

Officials with Scripps Medical Center also said all four of their emergency rooms are seeing a similar reaction due to the death of Arlitza Ortiz-Sanchez.