1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical air mattress, especially to a medical air mattress for anti-decubitus purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
For patients who have physical difficulties with mobility or bedfast. Patients lying on a mattress over a long period of time are susceptible to develop decubitus ulcers on multiple areas of body due to continuous pressure. In order to minimize or eliminate the development of decubitus ulcers caretakers must turn patients' body over or move patient to alternate the areas of pressure on the body. The conventional medical air mattress was developed to assist in the manual movement of and alternating pressure areas on the patient using multiple odd and even cells alternatively inflated to generate wave motion for changing the contact areas of the patient's body. The conventional medical air mattress has the following inadequacies.
1. Because the patients lying on the conventional air mattress have difficulty with mobility or bedfast, the protective apparatus around the conventional air mattress is important to keep the patient from falling off of the mattress. Hospital beds, which a medical mattress is used on, are equipped with guardrails; which at times can prohibit medical staff from taking care of the patients lying on the hospital beds and cannot always be in optimal position for patient protection. Many patients require the continued therapy of a medical air mattress in their homes. The medical air mattress is also required to assist caretakers move patient with minimal manual labor. In many cases the home is not equipped with guardrails on the bed that the medical air mattress is being used. The conventional medical air mattress has air filled guardrails to protect patients and to assist caretakers, who can easily press down the air guardrails. Such guardrails cannot be inflated or deflated independently. If the patient accidentally compresses either air guardrail, such air guardrails will slant outward and cannot protect the patient anymore, causing the opportunity for the patient to fall from mattress. Such air guardrails have no connection with the upper bedspreads, only being connected to the lower bedspreads restrict the ability to have mutual-drawing power to each other from two-side on the upper bedspreads.
2. To assist patients in turning over, two inclined cells are mounted under the body air cells. When the patients need to turn over, one of the inclined cells inflates to tilt the conventional air mattress. This design offers only one inclined angle. Patients with varying disabilities will require different inclined positions, which are decided by physicians or patient discomfort. In the event that the patient requires a different angle than that offered by the conventional air mattress caretakers may use non-recommended accessories or the therapy cannot be provided. Either of these options put the patient at risk of injury.
The present invention provides a medical air mattress to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned inadequacies.
The main objective of the present invention is to provide a medical air mattress that will have mutual-drawing guardrail sleeves to keep the guardrail sleeves from tilting when being pressed. The medical air mattress has a mattress body, an upper bedspread and a guardrail unit. The mattress body is formed by multiple air cells parallelly arranged in an air cell row. The upper bedspread covers the mattress body and has guardrail sleeves on two-side formed on the top of the upper bedspread. The guardrail unit has multiple guardrail air cells mounted respectively in the guardrail sleeves. The guardrail sleeves are formed on the upper bedspread, the upper bedspread and the guardrail sleeves will draw each other on two-side to ensure the guardrail sleeves remain in position when pressed. Therefore, the guardrail sleeves will not fall down when pressed and continue to provide optimal protection for the patient as its intended purpose.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when reviewed in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
The inclined air cells 20 are mounted longitudinally on the lower bedspread 10; respectively near two sides of the lower bedspread 10 and are parallel to each other.
The mattress body 30 is mounted on the lower bedspread 10, which is mounted across the inclined air cells 20 comprising of multiple body air cells 31 and multiple head air cells 32. In a preferred embodiment, the mattress body 30 comprises three head air cells 32. Each body air cell 31 and each head air cell 32 are tubular and respectively uniform in diameter. The head air cells 32 have the same diameter with the body air cells 31. The body air cells 31 and the head air cells 32 are parallel to each other and are arranged in a row to form an air cell row. The head air cells 32 are arranged at a head end in the air cell row, i.e. the head air cells 32 arranged at first to third in the air cell row. The body air cells 31 are arranged at fourth to seventeenth in the air cell row.
The upper bedspread 50 covers the mattress body 30 and is connected securely to the lower bedspread 10. A heat unit 51 is installed right under the upper bedspread 50 and above mattress body 30 for heating. The heat unit 51 may be carbon fiber electrothermal sheet. The upper bedspread 50 has guardrail sleeves 52. The guardrail sleeves 52 are formed parallel on two-side of the upper bedspread 50 and are respectively formed adjacent to the edges of two sides of the upper bedspread 50. In a preferred embodiment, the guardrail sleeves 52 are stitched on the upper bedspread 50. Each guardrail sleeve 52 has at least one sleeve body 521. In a preferred embodiment, each guardrail sleeve 52 has two sleeve bodies 521 formed separately and aligning with and coaxial to each other.
The medical air mattress as described further comprises a massage unit 40 mounted on the mattress body 30. The massage unit 40 comprises multiple micro vibrators 41 to massage the patients lying on the medical air mattress as described. Those micro vibrators 41 distribute massage separately and respectively to patient's neck, back, waist, thighs and so on.
The guardrail air unit 60 is mounted in the guardrail sleeves 52 and comprises multiple guardrail air cells 61. The guardrail air cells 61 are mounted respectively in the sleeve bodies 521 of the guardrail sleeve 52.
With reference to
In a preferred embodiment, the pump 71 is connected to an inclined alternating-valve 701 and a body alternating-valve 702. An inclined solenoid valve 703 is also connected between the inclined alternating-valve 701 and the pump 71. The inclined alternating-valve 701 is connected between the inclined solenoid valve 703 and the inclined pipeline 72. The body alternating-valve 702 is connected between the pump 71 with the body pipelines 73, 74 and the guardrail pipeline 77. The guardrail pipeline 77 is connected to the body alternating-valve 702 via a guardrail solenoid valve 772. The odd body pipeline 73 is connected to the head air cells 32 via a check valve 731. The even body pipeline 74 is connected to the head air cells 32 via a check valve 741. The body alternating-valve 702 is connected to the guardrail solenoid valve 772 via a check valve 771.
With reference to
When the medical air mattress as described is operated, the pump 71, the alternating-valves and the solenoid valves are actuated to inflate the air cells and to adjust the inflating. The inflating and the deflating operations are described detailedly below.
For guardrail air cells 61, when the pump 71 is operated, the guardrail air cells 61 are inflated to expand the guardrail sleeves 52 to provide side protections on the upper bedspread 50. When the patients lying on the upper bedspread 50 accidentally press on the guardrail sleeves 52, the guardrail sleeves 52 on both sides are drawn by each other since the guardrail sleeves 52 are formed on two-side of the upper bedspread 50. The drawing force keeps the guardrail sleeves 52 maintaining their shapes even being pressed. Therefore, the guardrail sleeves 52 are kept in position to protect the patients lying on the medical air mattress as described. Further, the check valve 771 keeps the air from back flowing when the body alternating-valve 702 is operated.
For the mattress body, when the pump 71 is operated, user may select different modes.
1. Full Inflating Mode:
With reference to
2. Alternating Inflating Mode:
With reference to
For the inclined air cells 20 as shown in
With reference to
When the medical air mattress as described is operated, the pump 71A, the alternating-valves and the solenoid valves are also actuated to inflate the air cells and to alternatively adjust the inflating. Since most operations are discussed above, only different operations are described below for the second embodiment of the medical air mattress.
For mattress body 30A, when the pump 71A is operated, user may select different modes.
1. Full Inflating Mode:
The pump 71A is operated to inflate all the body air cells 31A and the head air cells 32A.
2. Alternating Inflating Mode:
With reference to
With reference to
When all of the body air cells 31A are inflated and one of the inclined air cells 20A is inflated as shown in
When the body air cells 31A at even rows of the air cell rows are inflated and the body air cells 31A at odd rows of the air cell rows are deflated, the inclined air cell 20A at right side is also simultaneously inflated to provide a totally added inclined angle at, said 30 degrees.
When the body air cells 31A at odd rows of the air cell rows are inflated and the body air cells 31A at even rows of the air cell rows are deflated, the inclined air cell 20A at left side is also inflated to provide an inclined angle at, said 30 degrees.
The medical air mattress in accordance with the present invention has numerous advantages. With the guardrail sleeves 52 formed on the top of the upper bedspread 50, the mutual drawing-force between the guardrail sleeves 52 from 2-opposite side of the upper bedspread 50 holds the guardrail sleeves 52 in position to protect the patient lying on the medical air mattress. Furthermore, the body air cells 31A in conical shape associated with the inclined air cells 20A provide multiple inclined angles. Therefore, different patients may choose a proper inclined angle they need or as instructed by the doctor.
Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and features of the invention, the above disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Child | 15674199 | US |