The present invention relates to a calf rest for patient chairs of the type intended for washing, showering, dressing, undressing, and wheelchairs and the like which are used in nursing and home care, rehabilitation etc.
Many different types of patient chairs are known. Some of them are commonly mechanical, others are in a complicated way fitted with electronics for raising and lowering the seat, inclination backwards, inclination of leg rest etc. Some of them have the convenience of the nursing staff in view while others are more concentrated on the patient's convenience. Sometimes these kinds of convenience seem to be incompatible, especially in mechanical patient chairs. Many patients are incapable of communicating their needs or wishes or discomfort to their carers.
One component of patient chairs which has not yet achieved a satisfactory function and handleability, either from the carer's or from the patient's point of view, is the leg rest especially in mechanical patient chairs. These leg rests often consist of integrated foot and calf rests, an unwieldy separate component which is mountable on and dismountable from the patient chair by hinge mechanisms. In many cases the construction is such that when transporting the patient chair, for instance in a narrow lift, lavatory/bathroom, the leg rest (sometimes separate for left leg and right leg, sometimes one component for both feet) must be dismounted. Especially in mechanical patient chairs, they have only one use position, corresponding to a normal sitting position of an “average” patient, supporting one or both legs of the patient, causing stasis in other patients. They are often in the patient's way when he/she is to be seated in the patient chair or be moved from the patient chair by carers. They can also be in the way of patients who can walk fairly well and can sit down on their own in a normal chair, but must first be seated before the position of the legs is arranged. Any possibility of dismounting is merely occasionally used by carers, since dismounting and subsequent mounting is considered difficult and time consuming. When moving a patient from the patient chair, for instance from a wheelchair to a shower chair or from a shower chair to a bed, the patient's legs must be lifted separately by the carer if the patient himself is incapable of raising his legs, thus facilitating the movement of the patient. Lifting of legs is heavy work for the carers, especially in view of the fact that the carers must perform this operation in an ergonomically unsatisfactory position. The leg supports of some patient chairs fitted with electronics are electronically pivotable outwards and inwards, allowing the legs to be straightened out from the normal sitting position, but a construction controlled by electronics, of course, makes the manufacture of the patient chair expensive and does not allow easy dismounting and/or moving away of the leg support, which would be necessary, for instance, before entering a narrow lift, or when the patient is seated on a shower/toilet chair over a toilet/bedpan in which case a more upright sitting position is desirable.
An object of the invention is to provide a calf rest construction for a patient chair, which is simple and thus can be manufactured at low cost, said calf rest construction having an inactive position where it takes up a small space on the patient chair and thus need not be removed when moving the patient chair to narrow spaces, and having an active position supporting a patient's legs in a raised position. Another object is that the calf rest construction should be detachable from the patient chair, if the option of detachment should be considered important.
The objects are achieved by a calf rest for a patient chair according to independent claim 1. Advantageous embodiments have the features stated in the dependent claims.
An embodiment of the invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
a shows a patient chair with a calf rest in an inactive position.
b shows the patient chair in
c-f illustrate a sequence of movements of the calf rest between an inactive and an active position.
a is a perspective view of a loose fastening pin which is fixed to the underside of the patient chair.
b is a side view of the fastening pin.
c is a cross-section along line A-A in
d illustrates a groove shown in
Reference is made to
A calf rest 20 according to the invention is mounted on the patient chair 1. The calf rest 20 comprises a mounting arm 21 and, mounted thereon, a plate-shaped calf rest pad 22. The mounting arm 21 has a transverse part 21a at one end and a chair mounting sleeve 21b at the other end. The transverse part 21a forms a hinge pin which cooperates with hinge pin holding elements 23 on the back of the calf rest pad 22, so that the calf rest pad is tiltable on the arm 21, as indicated by the double arrow in
The chair mounting sleeve 21b is arranged for hinge engagement with a pin-like fastener 24 which is fixed to the underside of the seat 6 close to the front edge thereof and close to a corner thereof.
In
In
As is evident from
The arrangement is such that a movement between the active and inactive positions of the calf rest 20 occurs in a single part-circular sweeping motion of the calf rest 20 about the pin fastener 24, so that the calf rest, when approaching the patient's leg (extended vertically in the sitting position) during this sweeping motion (from the inactive position) enters, from the side of the patient's leg, under the leg which is now possibly lifted somewhat by the carer.
To perform such a sweeping motion, the pin fastener 24 on the seat 6 is inclined at a suitable angle. This is evident from
As is evident from
It is noted that the inclination of the pin 24 and the sleeve 21b cooperating therewith automatically results in assistance by gravity to move the calf rest from the inactive end position to the active end position, implying that the carer need not apply power during the major part of the movement. With a suitable inclination of the hinge arrangement 21b and 24, which a person skilled in the art can easily find based on the teachings of the invention, the angle α can be about 150° and the angle β can be about 60°. These angle values are in no way limiting; they depend on the length of the mounting arm 21, which is in turn adjusted to the point on the present patient chair at which the calf rest can be mounted while taking different aspects into consideration.
The calf rest 20 can be removed from its fastener 24 in the active position through a third pocket 28 which is perpendicular to the guide groove 26 and which opens in the bottom surface of the fastener 24, see
As is evident from that stated above, the calf rest is operated in the following way. With the calf rest 20 in the inactive position (
It is understood that a mirror-inverted calf rest is located on the other side (not shown) of the patient chair. However, it is possible for a mounting arm 21 to support two calf rest pads, for the patient's left leg and right leg. The above-mentioned saving of space in the lateral direction of the patient chair is still achieved.
The calf rest 20 has, as is particularly shown in
For adjustment to different patients with differently long (lower) legs, the calf rest pad can be provided with spaced-apart hinge holding elements, illustrated by dashed lines 23a, 23b in
a and 1b also illustrate foot rests 30 which are pivotable in their plane sideways, inwards under the seat 5 by means of a hinge 31. Preferably the foot rest is separated from the calf rest, for as much free space as possible to be available under the seat 5.
A patient chair with a vertically adjustable seat has been described above. The calf rest according to the invention has the special advantage precisely in such patient chairs, implying that a raised position of the patient does not require the carer to bend—thus straining his back—to operate the calf rest.
However, the calf rest according to the invention is, of course, usable also for patient chairs that do not have a vertically adjustable seat. The calf rest still has its important advantage of adjustability in a position requiring a small space close to the patient chair. It goes without saying that the calf rest need not be fixed to the seat, but can be fixed to an arbitrary chassis part.
An alternative construction of the calf rest according to the invention is designed similar to an aircraft table in the front row, where a hinge allows raising of one (rear) edge end of the table leaf arranged with its major parts in a vertical position, about a hinge at the front edge end, and after that lowering of the table leaf, by another hinge, to a horizontal position.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
0301294-5 | May 2003 | SE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/SE04/00676 | 5/4/2004 | WO | 11/4/2005 |