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Nine-year-old Abby Parker bites her mother bloody, hits her little brother and beats her head against the wall -- neurological problems linked to the brain cancer she suffered as an infant and best treated by a developmental-behavioral pediatrician.

But to see these specialists, there's typically a wait of at least six months. And that leaves Abby's frazzled mother, Leslie Young of Simpsonville, feeling desperate.

"Sometimes," Young says, "I feel like I'm ready for a nervous breakdown."

Young isn't the only one waiting for help. With a shortage of these pediatric specialists and other medical professionals in the Upstate and around the country, many patients face long waits and travel distances for the care they need.

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Along with the pediatric specialties, the American Medical Association has reported shortages in allergy and immunology, anesthesiology, cardiology, critical care, dermatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, geriatrics, neurosurgery, oncology, psychiatry, radiology, rheumatology and surgical subspecialties.

"The American Medical Association recognizes that there are physician shortages in many regions and specialties, including family physicians, and that evidence exists for additional shortages in the future," said Dr. Edward Langston, chair-elect of the AMA board.

South Carolina ranks 36th nationally in the number of physicians per capita, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The American Public Health Association says the nation is facing critical shortages of public health workers, too, including epidemiologists, nurses, laboratory technicians, and environmental health professionals, with vacancy rates as high as 20 percent in some states.

"Our emerging public health work-force crisis comes at a time when Americans are facing a host of risks to their health and safety, from bioterrorism to pandemic influenza," said Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, APHA executive director.

And by 2020, the nation will be short 1.6 million to 2.5 million allied health workers, according to Richard Oliver, dean of the University of Missouri School of Health Professions and co-chair of FuturePoint Summit, a national coalition of academic and business leaders searching for solutions.

"Shortages of health-care professionals can result in startling and alarming consequences for health-care delivery organizations, particularly in rural settings," he said in a release.

To address these looming shortages, AAMC recommends increasing medical education capacity nationwide.

In 2006, there were 39,109 applicants but only 17,370 first-year students, AAMC reports. While 2006 enrollment increased 2.2 percent over the previous year, 30 percent is needed to offset future shortages.

APHA called for federally funded scholarship and loan repayment programs, renewed investment in public health services, and expanded internships and fellowships in federal health agencies such as the National Institutes of Health.

"We must build our supply of trained professionals who will staff the frontlines in responding to public health threats and emergencies," Benjamin said.

Greenville Hospital System has launched a fellowship to try to ease the shortage of developmental-behavioral pediatricians. But that will take time. The three-year fellowship will turn out one specialist a year, with the first starting this year.

The Academy of Pediatrics is increasing specialty training programs, according to Dr. Desmond Kelly, medical director of the division of developmental-behavioral pediatrics at GHS' Children's Hospital.

But with nearly one in five children suffering a developmental-behavioral disorder ranging from learning disabilities to autism, he doubts it's enough.

"We are acutely aware of how stressful this is for parents," he said. "But it's challenging. As demand increases, it's so hard to ever meet that demand. And no matter how many specialists we add, others leave. We're recruiting another physician now because one moved and another is retiring."

In the meantime, says Kelly, whose office averages more than 200 new referrals a month, specialists are helping pediatricians know what to look for so they can provide some care while parents wait for the specialists. And his staff is working to become more efficient, focusing resources on those who need them most urgently.

Psychiatrists and counselors can handle a lot of behavioral problems, but there's a shortage of them as well, adds Dr. Augusto Morales, Abby's pediatric neurologist. Just 10 years ago, he says, there wasn't even one full-time pediatric neurologist in Greenville.

"Last month we had 150 referrals, and we are three people," Morales said. "There are a lot of people who need to be seen and just not enough doctors to see them all."

And in particularly complex cases, like Abby's, he says, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician is best.

When she was 7 months old, Abby's head began to swell, her mother says. She began vomiting and losing her balance. She was diagnosed with Stage IV glioblastoma, and doctors said the left side of her brain had to be removed. Then she underwent chemotherapy for a year.

"The tumor had infiltrated the whole left side," Young, 28, recalls. "And portions of the right side and frontal lobe were damaged from the pressure from the tumor and from the stroke that occurred during surgery."

Young, who works as a spa director, says no one expected Abby to walk, talk or feed herself. But now, though severely disabled, she can count to 5 and communicate what she wants in one word.

"She's overcome so much, and while I don't think she'll ever be a 100 percent functioning adult, I'd at least like to get her as far as I can," she said. "But this behavior gets in the way so much."

Because Abby suddenly began having seizures and lost bladder control on top of her other problems, she was moved up on the waiting list, as urgent cases often are, Kelly said.

Now doctors are trying to find a medication that will ease her symptoms without causing unbearable side effects, said Morales.

"We are trying as many possible interventions as we can," he said. "You can imagine the complexity of dealing with a brain that has so much injury."

Young hopes something can be found to help.