Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center Donates Ultrasound Machines to Ukraine
ROCKVILLE, Maryland ― Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center is donating two ultrasound machines to help Ukrainian physicians care for patients impacted by Russia’s invasion.
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.
