Kerry A Jacobs

US Patent:

56806620, Oct 28, 1997

Filed:

Sep 9, 1996

Appl. No.:

8/709638

Inventors:

William J. Purdy - White Plains NY
Roy E. Reed - Plainfield IN
Kerry L. Jacobs - Mooresville IN

Assignee:

Veritas Enterprises, Inc. - White Plains NY

International Classification:

A47C 2700

US Classification:

5676

Abstract:

A cushioning mattress is provided to normalize and distribute the weight of a patient's body to reduce the tangential forces bearing on the skin of the patient. The cushioning mattress comprises a top surface, a bottom surface and a series of alternating "tunnel" billows and "loop" billows. Each tunnel billow comprises a separate piece of material affixed to the top or bottom surface along two parallel seams to define a wide-based closed cell. Each loop billow comprises a separate piece of material affixed to the top or bottom surface along a single seam to define a narrow-based closed. Each tunnel and loop billow contains a visco-elastic material capable of conforming to any surface which it engages. The volume of the visco-elastic material contained in each loop billow is lesser than the volume contained in each tunnel billow such that the flowability of the material in each loop billow is greater than that of each tunnel billow, thereby permitting the upper surface of the mattress defined by the loop billows to engage and be adjacent the patient's skin to equalize the pressure bearing thereagainst.