Medical Device Transporter

This invention relates to instrumentation carrying devices to be used on portable stretchers of the type used in ambulances.

The prior art in the field of the placement of instrumentation on stretchers while patients are being transported does not include a single convenient and removable carrying device for the instrumentation. Often times in the prior art, instruments are merely laid down on the side of the patient, or strewn across the patient during transport. In other prior art devices the life support and monitoring instrumentation is built into the stretcher and cannot be removed. Similarly, there has been no convenient special provision for the handling of life support apparatus to be used for a stretcher patient.

Currently devices such as suction pumps, blood pressure gauges, pulse meters, and the like when used in conjunction with a stretcher patient are simply placed alongside the stretcher, on top of the patient as the stretcher is being moved, or secured to the underside of the stretcher. When these devices are placed in these ways, they are inconvenient for paramedics and potentially uncomfortable or dangerous for the patient. Still further, when a patient is being transported down a stairway or ladder, the placement of instrumentation becomes extremely difficult because of the danger of its falling off or being damaged.

U.S. Pats. Nos. 4,352,991, 4,060,079, 3,954,100 and 3,504,386 are representative of the prior art. None of these prior art patents discloses or suggests a portable single piece molded snap lock on unit which may be used in transporting patients on a stretcher, provided by this invention.

This invention is a single piece instrumentation carrier, preferably of molded plastic, which may be mounted on a stretcher or placed on the ground at an oblique angle. The invention provides for easy observation of the instrument gauges while on the stretcher or on the ground. The invention also includes depending legs which have annular grooves or recesses therein which snap in place over the horizontal carrying bars on a stretcher.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of the instrumentation carrying device of this invention.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the apparatus of FIG. 1 when placed across the bars on the sides of a stretcher.

FIG. 3 depicts the apparatus of FIG. 1 when placed upon its oblique surface for providing an oblique angle with respect to the horizontal for instrument display.

FIG. 4 depicts the apparatus of FIG. 1 placed across the bars on the sides of the stretcher and viewed from a perspective above and to the side of the device of this invention.

The instrumentation carrying apparatus of FIG. 1 is a single piece which, when placed on the arms or a side bar of a stretcher, provides a bridge over the top of the stretcher and the patient on the stretcher. The bridge 10 includes an upper surface 12 which provides for mounting of displays or gauges 14 and 16, and controls for the instrumentation 18. While the apparatus is preferably of molded plastic, other materials which can be welded or otherwise joined to form a unitary structure may be used.

The instrumentation used with this bridge carrying apparatus may be either equipment for monitoring a patient's condition or equipment for providing life support to the patient while the patient is being transported.

The bridge carrying apparatus includes legs 20 and 22 which depend downward from the bridge and which by means of annular recesses 24 and 26 provide a snap on or detent connection to the bars on the stretcher 28, as is shown generally in FIG. 2. The legs also include cut off portions which are preferably at an angle of 30.degree., which together form a plane which is oblique to the vertical axis 30 of the bridge 10. The cut off portions are shown in FIG. 1 as surfaces 34 and 36. The plane of the cut off portions formed by surfaces 34 and 36 is generally parallel to axis 32 and oblique to axis 38. By this arrangement, as depicted in FIG. 3, when the apparatus 10 is placed on the ground, resting on surfaces 34 and 36 respectively, the upper surface of the bridge 12 is held at an angle with respect to the ground, thereby providing for ease of observation of the instrumentation while the apparatus has been removed from the stretcher to allow patient placement on the stretcher or to permit carrying the equipment to the patient.

The top of the bridge may also include a compartment 15 which is used to hold probes which are used with the instrumentation of this invention.

This invention provides a convenient snap on means 24, 26 which engages the bars 28 of a standard stretcher, and provides a convenient means for transporting a patient with instrumentation attached thereto. In the preferred embodiment the depressions 24 and 26 comprise the snap on means when used in combination with the molded plastic bridge which is resilient and which forces the depressions 24 and 26 against a bar of the stretcher. The depressions 24 and 26 are semicircular and fit against the carrying bars 28 as illustrated in FIG. 2. The bridge carrying means may also be snapped onto other bars along the side of the stretcher. Still further, this invention provides for a convenient placement of the instrument support apparatus on the ground so that instrumentation can be easily observed by medical personnel who are handling the stretcher.

By placement of the entire instrumentation in a single bridge apparatus which spans the patient during transport, the problems associated with loose placement of instrumentation alongside or on top of the patient are eliminated. By this invention, there is no discomfort to the patient due to instrumentation, and the problems associated with instrumentation falling off a stretcher during moving are eliminated.