Dr. Ken Pierce of Kauai has come to the aid of disaster-stricken children half a world away.

After the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, Pierce, medical director of Island Doctors on Call on Kauai, spent a week in Haiti as a hospital emergency physician.

Exhausted from the endless work, he left Haiti on standby via a four-passenger, single-engine plane to Florida.

During that harrowing five-hour flight, Pierce met Miriam Frederick, founder of New Life Children's Home, an orphanage for about 115 children in Port-au- Prince. She appealed for his help in starting a children's hospital.

Pierce, the former medical executive of Wilcox Memorial Hospital and Kauai Medical Clinic, agreed.

On Feb. 28 he returned with his wife, Diane, a nurse, and his 17-year-old daughter, Emi, who is home-schooled. His oldest daughter, Hannah, joined them during her college's spring break.

On that monthlong trip, Pierce started the New Life Children's Medical Center in the main hall of a church.

About 30 minutes from the airport, the hospital has a full-time Haitian doctor and about four nurses and can handle about 25 children at a time. It has international volunteers who have come from Ohio, Rwanda and Australia.

About 100 children were helped during his stay.

But working conditions are still far from ideal.

“;It's hot, it's dirty, it's muggy,”; he said. “;There's swarms of mosquitoes. There's smoke from trash fires or cooking fires.”;

Despite the poor living conditions, Haitian people make the difference.

“;The people are beautiful,”; he said. “;They're grateful, and that really makes working there a joy even with the physical hardships.”;

The children's hospital treats patients for ailments such as dengue, malaria, dehydration and wound infections. But it mainly serves as a step-down facility for children needing postoperative care, which remains in high demand after hospitals were lost in the quake.

While hospitals are trying to clear out patients post-surgery as fast as possible to make room for more patients, children are being released with wounds that need to be kept clean and dressings that need to be changed.

Many children still live in tents without sanitation or running water, and keeping their wounds clean is a challenge. If not clean, the wounds run the risk of becoming infected and requiring amputation.

The demand for service surpasses current capacity and will continue for a long time until proper dwellings and sanitation systems can be constructed, Pierce said.

He is still looking for volunteers and said the hospital could double its capacity to about 40 with another doctor and a couple of nurses.

He hopes to make the hospital permanent, and already there is talk of expanding it or putting up a new building. For now the hospital is running on donations largely from Pierce's church, Kauai Christian Fellowship.

Pierce and his family returned to Kauai on March 30, but Pierce talks daily with the staff in Haiti and is working to get two toddlers through the red tape for advanced treatment in California and Florida.

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