Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center is donating two ultrasound machines to help Ukrainian physicians care for patients impacted by Russia’s invasion.

Per Adventist HealthCare:

Dr. William Chester, an anesthesiologist who practices at Shady Grove Medical Center, is helping the much-needed equipment make it to Ukraine through his Paul Chester Children’s Hope Foundation. The nonprofit, which performs medical missions around the world, is named for Dr. Chester’s son, Paul, who died in a car crash at age 16. Dr. Chester has been regularly communicating with an intensive care unit physician in Kyiv, Ukraine, who passed along a wish list of the war-torn nation’s most needed medical items. Ultrasound equipment ranked high on the list.

Dr. Chester approached Shady Grove Medical Center’s radiology leaders, Alexis Chase and Dennis Reed, and hospital President Dan Cochran to see if they could help. Shady Grove was preparing to retire two ultrasound units and decided to donate the machines after Dr. Chester presented the opportunity to get them to Ukraine.

Dr. Chester’s foundation will ship the machines through New Jersey to Poland, where aid organizations will assist getting the items across the Ukrainian border. Once in Ukraine, one ultrasound machine will head to Kyiv and the second will be sent to a frontline hospital or another medical facility where the Ukrainian contact deems it could help the most.

“These are really going to be put to good use,” Dr. Chester said, noting the hospital has been generous in supporting the foundation’s work in the past. “These are making a huge difference.”

Shady Grove’s ultrasound machines are the second wish-list items that Dr. Chester has secured for his Ukrainian colleague. In March, Gov. Larry Hogan announced the Maryland Department of Health was donating 50 portable ventilators to Dr. Chester’s foundation to assist Ukraine.

Metro Offering New Incentives, Including $2 Rides, Discounts and Service Improvements to Get Riders Back

Metro has added some new discounts and scheduling to try to get people back onto trains and buses starting this Labor Day. They include:

• $2 fare for weekend train rides, no mater how far you are going.
• Discounting monthly passes by 40% for 30 days in September as workers head back to the office.
• Discount day and weeklong rail and bus passes by 50%. These would also be temporary 30-day discounts to woo riders back to the system.
• Indefinitely eliminating the $2 cost to transfer from bus to rail service.
• Lowers the seven-day regional bus pass cost to $12 ($6 for seniors and disabled people)

For service changes, Metro is focusing on providing more consistent service throughout the day.

• Peak hour service would have trains every five to ten minutes.
• Rail would stay open until midnight seven days a week starting in July and increase to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays starting this fall.
• The rail service should see 12-minute or less waits during most of the day.
• 20 of the busiest bus routes would see 12-minute or less waits during the day. Sixteen other bus lines would have service every 20 minutes or less.

In June the WTMA (The Washington Township Municipal Authority) shared how rail ridership was down 83 percent over 2019, and bus ridership was down 65 percent.

The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection released a facility update on the Shady Grove transfer station earlier this morning.

The update can be seen below:

8/28/21: Due to site conditions the Shady Grove Transfer Station Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) facility is CLOSED and may reopen Tues (8/31). No dumping of paint, batteries, light bulbs, gasoline, pesticides, chemicals, cleaners, or other HHW.

More updates will be provided if the reopening date is changed.