In the early 1900s, two out of seven children in Hawai'i did not live to see their first birthday. This statistic so troubled Hawai'i's first governor, Sanford Dole, and Dr. James R. Judd that in 1907 they launched a campaign to create a hospital dedicated to the needs of Hawai'i's infants and children. Their vision inspired others, including Albert and Emma Kauikeolani Wilcox, who generously donated $50,000 for a children's hospital. One hundred years ago, on November 25, 1909, Kauikeolani Children's Hospital opened its doors.

In 1978, Kauikeolani merged with Kapi'olani Maternity Home to form Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children. This year the hospital celebrates a century of caring for children — and a joyous new statistic. In 100 years, Hawai'i's infant mortality rate has gone from almost 30 percent to less than half a percent.

It's a testament to the indispensable role a pediatric specialty hospital plays in our community. At Kapi'olani we know that children are not simply "small adults." Whether it's prematurity, a congenital defect, pediatric cancer or other life-threatening illness or accident, children's tiny bodies and developing systems require highly specialized care.

Last year at Kapi'olani, almost 6,500 babies were born — nearly half of all babies born on O'ahu. More than 20,000 families rushed their children to Kapi'olani's Emergency Room, Hawai'i's only Pediatric Emergency Room where specialists trained in pediatric emergency medicine are available 24 hours a day. More than 200 of Hawai'i's young cancer patients were cared for with access to 90 clinical trials — the same treatment available at leading cancer centers across the nation.

One hundred life-saving heart procedures were performed, and 900 low-birth weight or premature infants from all islands were cared for in Kapi'olani's Newborn Intensive Care Unit where neonatologists are available 24/7 should a newborn require their care.

Finally, and importantly for our remote island state, life-saving air transportation was provided from the Neighbor Islands or to the Mainland for more than 500 seriously ill newborns and children.

Yet what many in Hawai'i don't know is that a market of 3 to 5 million is considered the minimum population to sustain a children's specialty hospital. In fact only 5 percent of all hospitals nationwide are children's hospitals. No parent, grandparent, auntie or uncle wants to imagine what it would be like if Kapi'olani were not here. But with fewer than 1.3 million people in Hawai'i, how do we support a pediatric facility of this caliber?

We do it by remaining true to our mission: We are a non-profit hospital staffed with highly skilled, compassionate physicians, nurses and medical staff who are dedicated to providing the finest healthcare for Hawai'i's children and families, regardless of ability to pay.

We do it by getting creative. For example, since Hawai'i's population doesn't support a round-the-clock pediatric cardiac surgery program, we collaborate with Stanford and San Diego Children's Hospital for Heart Week, when Kapi'olani brings the nation's finest cardiologists right to our tiny patients' bedsides five times a year.

In a program we share with Kaiser and Tripler, we house the state's only pediatric Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine, an important treatment for infants and children with cardiorespiratory failure.

Finally, we do it with help from the community. As a nonprofit hospital, Kapi'olani Medical Center is able to invest any revenue right back into patient programs and services, ensuring that we continue to carry out the vision of our combined founders Queen Kapi'olani, Dr. Judd, Gov. Dole and Albert and Emma Wilcox. Just as it was a century ago, it remains through the generous support of donors like these that we can provide the highest quality of care for our children.