Land vehicles – Wheeled – Occupant propelled type
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-22
2001-03-06
Vanaman, Frank (Department: 3611)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Occupant propelled type
C280S304100, C297SDIG004
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196565
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to a wheelchair for providing a patient with the capability to exercise therapeutically his or her legs and lower body while seated in the chair. More specifically, this invention relates to a wheelchair that is equipped with a therapeutic exercising device that is compact and will not impede a patient's ability to easily get in and out of the chair.
Oftentimes, patients are unable to walk due to post-operative recoveries, injuries, infirmaries or the like, and are thus confined to a wheelchair for relatively long periods of time. As a consequence, the patients' unused muscles become weakened and the lower body, in particular, loses strength. When the recovery period is lengthy or not possible, the patient is required to attend therapy on a regular basis. This type of treatment is not only expensive, but also time consuming in that the patient usually must be transported from the place of confinement to the therapist's office. This, in turn, can, and often does, result in missed appointments due to weather, lack of help or transportation or simply poor health. Under these adverse conditions, a patient will lose the desire to continue in therapy and his or her condition will worsen rather than improve.
Many different wheelchairs are found in the prior art that are designed to provide exercise to a patient while seated in the chair. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,732, a wheelchair is disclosed which has a manual drive system that is operated through means of a pair of hand operated levers. The levers are reciprocated by the patient while seated in the chair and the motion translated to the drive wheels through a suitable linkage, to propel the chair in a desired direction. Although this device works well to provide exercise for the patient's upper body, it has no therapeutic value in relation to the patient's lower body which, in most cases, is the part of the body which most requires exercise.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,304, there is disclosed a leg powered attachment for a conventional wheelchair. The device is equipped with a single drive wheel that is driven by pedals, much like a child's tricycle. The pedal unit is attached to the main frame of the chair and protrudes well forward of the chair seat to provide ample leg access to the pedals and sufficient room to turn the drive wheel. As anyone who has pedaled a tricycle knows, pedaling this type of device can be tiring and overtaxing, particularly for a person who is not physically well. The forwardly protruding pedal wheel makes ingress and egress from the chair extremely difficult. In addition, because of the excessive length of the pedal wheel unit, the maneuverability of the chair is seriously impeded and its turning radius is greatly increased.
A similar pedal wheel attachment for a wheelchair is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,937 where the direct pedal driver is replaced with a chain and sprocket drive system. Although the chain and sprocket drive offers some improvement in the amount of energy that must be expended in propelling the chair, here again because of the size and complexity of the drive system, getting into and out of the chair is very difficult, particularly for a patient with infirmities. Additionally, maneuverability of the chair is limited and the chair cannot be effectively used in a confined space to provide meaningful exercise. A similar sprocket and chain driven device is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,060.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary object of the present invention to improve wheelchairs by providing the chair with a compact therapeutic system that will not impede the user's ability to get into or out of the chair or adversely effect the chair's mobility and maneuverability.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a compact therapeutic exercising device for a wheelchair that can be adjusted by a patient seated in the chair to match the level of exercise to the patient's physical capabilities.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a modular exercising device that can be attached without modification to a wide number of existing wheelchairs.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a compact therapeutic exercising attachment for a wheelchair that can be used to propel the chair or, at the option of a patient seated in the char, easily changed to a non-propelling mode of operation for use in in-place therapeutic exercising.
A still further object of the present invention is to improve the quality of life of a patient that is confined to a wheelchair by providing a therapeutic exercising device that can be used while the patient is seated in the chair.
These and other objects of the present invention are attained by a wheelchair having a main frame for supporting a seat, a pair of main hand operated drive wheels and standard brackets mounted upon the front of the frame for removably supporting conventional leg rests. An auxiliary frame is mounted upon the brackets that contains a single smaller auxiliary drive wheel located beneath the seat. A pair of leg operated levers are connected to the auxiliary drive wheel through a drive system so that when the levers are reciprocated in a general vertical plane, the auxiliary drive wheel is caused to rotate and thus propel the chair forwardly. Each lever contains a forwardly extended arm that is pivotally mounted in assembly so that the lever arms can be rotated to one side or the other of the seat thus providing easy and safe passage into and out of the chair seat. The auxiliary frame is equipped with a readily accessible actuator that can be pushed downwardly by a patient seated in the chair to lock the auxiliary drive wheel in a raised position whereby the patient can exercise in a stationary or in-place position. A similarly readily accessible brake system is mounted in the auxiliary frame that can be adjustably set by the patient while seated in the chair to place a drag force on the auxiliary drive wheel so that the patient can set the level of exercise to his or her physical capabilities.
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Vanaman Frank
Wall Marjama & Bilinski
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