Exercise devices – For foot or ankle
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-03
2004-09-14
Donnelly, Jerome W. (Department: 3764)
Exercise devices
For foot or ankle
C482S080000, C482S907000, C602S027000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06790165
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a rehabilitation aid that has simple structure to effectively protect a apoplectic from tripping and falling during practicing walking alone without using a crutch or other type of big-volume supportive device, and therefore helps the apoplectic to rebuild his or her faith and confidence to restore to health more quickly.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
People's living standards are largely upgraded with the highly developed social and economic prosperity. As a result, a lot of people are suffering from many physical problems, such as hypertension and cerebral apoplexy, caused by taking in too much food containing high calorie and cholesterol. The age bracket of apoplectics has gradually lowered. Many people, who suddenly suffer from cerebral apoplexy, become passive or hot-tempered. Hospitals and/or health centers have to take care these patients not only to rebuild their faith and confidence, bust also provide good rehabilitation treatments. Rehabilitation treatments would usually continue for a considerably long time period and be conducted at specific locations with particularly designed apparatus. It is a tough work for most apoplectics to go to hospitals and health centers, particularly when the patients have difficulty in walking, because their toes and ball of the foot have poor blood circulation and normally fail to move upward along with their heel during walking. That is why the apoplectics frequently trip and fall. To protect the apoplectics against such tripping and falling, hospitals and health centers usually provide specially designed rehabilitation lanes for the patients to train their legs. However, since there are only limited numbers of rehabilitation apparatus available for use, and since it is not convenient for the patients to go to hospitals frequently, the patients would generally use a crutch or some other supportive devices to practice walking at home or around nearby parks. These supportive devices usually have a big volume to occupy a considerably large space to possibly interfere and/or collide with other people and cause undesired tripping and falling of the patients.
It is therefore desirable to develop a structurally simple rehabilitation aid to help an apoplectic to practice walking alone without the risk of tripping and falling.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a rehabilitation aid that enables an apoplectic to walk freely without using any big-volume supportive device, and thereby helps the patient to rebuild his faith and confidence and speeds up the restoration of the patient's health.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a rehabilitation aid that helps an apoplectic to move his toes and ball of the foot upward along with a raised heel to avoid tripping and falling.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a rehabilitation aid that includes adjusting means to enable a user to control a pulling stress to be generated by a spring to pull the user's toes upward depending on the user's actual leg condition.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a rehabilitation aid that has simple structure and occupies only very small space, and is designed for wearing on a user's leg to help the user to walk freely and safely.
To achieve the above and other objects, the rehabilitation aid of the present invention mainly includes a leg sleeve, an adjusting means connected to a front side of the leg sleeve, a spring connected at an end to the adjusting means, and a foot strap connected to another end of the spring. The leg sleeve and the foot strap are designed for adjustably putting around a user's leg close to a lower part thereof and the user's sole close to the toes, respectively. The spring is adapted to generate a pulling stress best suitable for the user through control of the adjusting means, so that the user's toes and ball of the foot are raised along with the user's heel via an upward angular pulling force provided by the spring to protect the user from tripping and falling during practicing walking alone.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2467943 (1949-04-01), Mikell, Jr.
patent: 2498006 (1950-02-01), Ridill
patent: 4955370 (1990-09-01), Pettine
patent: 5382224 (1995-01-01), Sprangler
patent: 5662595 (1997-09-01), Chesher et al.
patent: 5683336 (1997-11-01), Pape
patent: 6602217 (2003-08-01), Crawford et al.
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Donnelly Jerome W.
Huang Chih-Hung
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