Abstract:
A litter bag is provided for isolating a casualty from a contaminated environment. The litter bag includes a collapsible access chamber mounted over an aperture in the bag whereby personnel may have immediate and direct access to the casualty. The access chamber is formed with tubular passages which may be filled with a gas to expand the chamber from a collapsed position to form a semi-rigid structure.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates generally to the medical treatment of casualties and particularly to the medical treatment of casualties located in a contaminated environment. 
     Typically, when a person is injured and becomes a casualty in a contaminated environment, such as occurs in a chemical warfare confrontation, the casualty is placed within a litter bag or enclosure for transportation to a medical facility. The enclosure is manufactured of a material that inhibits or prevents the transfer of contaminants from the ambient environment to the casualty. 
     In many cases, it is imperative that medical treatment be given to the casualty immediately, however, in order to administer treatment, the litter bag with its casualty must first be transported into an enclosure within which medical personnel may work on the casualty or additional means must be provided for allowing access to the casualty without introducing contaminants into the enclosure containing the casualty. The apparatus currently available for treating the casualty in the field is subject to the problem of the treatment being delayed by the transportation of the casualty as well as the problem of the possible unavailability of medical facilities or unavailability of the needed additional apparatus to ensure that the casualty is protected from contaminants. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,806 to Akers and assigned to the assignee of this application, discloses a prior art evacuation apparatus for removing a casualty in a litter bag or enclosure to a treatment facility. This device is subject to the limitation of a treatment facility being available for use with the enclosure containing the casualty. Further, the access of the medical personnel to the casualty is limited since they must operate with their hands within gloves attached to the enclosure containing the casualty. 
     U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,612,916 and 4,485,490 both to Akers et al and both assigned to the assignee of this application, disclose a method and apparatus for treating the casualty located within a contaminated area by use of a glove box attached to the enclosure containing the casualty. While the means for treating the casualty does not require that the casualty be transported to a medical facility or a treatment enclosure, the glove box is somewhat bulky, and the treatment of the casualty is subject to the availability of a glove box at the site of the casualty. In addition, the glove box requires the medical personnel to work with their hands within not only their own protective gloves but also within gloves attached to the glove box such that the tactile sensitivity of the worker&#39;s hands in working on the casualty is reduced. 
     Thus, there is a need for an enclosure for protecting the casualty within a contaminated environment which also provides medical personnel with convenient access for rendering immediate treatment. There is also a need for an enclosure which provides medical personnel with direct access to the casualty without introducing contaminants into the enclosure containing the casualty. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In accordance with the present invention, a treatment apparatus is provided for allowing direct access to a casualty located within an enclosure for isolating the casualty from a contaminated environment. The treatment apparatus comprises a litter bag or enclosure and an access chamber attached to an upper horizontal surface of the litter bag. The access chamber is positioned over an aperture formed in the litter bag such that the interior of the access chamber is in communication with the interior of the litter bag. 
     In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the access chamber is provided with four vertical side walls and an upper panel having a transparent window through which medical personnel may view the casualty. One of the vertical walls includes a substantially vertically oriented elongated opening with a fastener system attached thereto for providing access to the interior of the chamber. The fastener system is operable to open and close the opening in the access chamber and is designed to be compatible with a similar fastener on an enclosure containing a person administering medical treatment. 
     Also in the preferred embodiment, the vertical walls of the access chamber are formed of a flexible material and the edges joining the vertical side walls to one another and to the upper panel are provided with means defining tubular gas passages therein for receiving pressurized gas, and means are provided for connecting the tubular gas passages to a pressurized gas source. 
     When the tubular gas passages are filled with a pressurized gas, the edges of the access chamber form a semi-rigid parallelepiped structure such that the side walls are flat and are brought to a vertical position, and the upper panel is located distal from the lower portion of the access chamber. When the pressurized gas is released from the tubular gas passages the vertical walls of the chamber may be collapsed and folded upon themselves to a position wherein the upper panel is in a location adjacent to the lower portion of the chamber. 
     Thus, a litter bag is provided which differs from prior art litter bags in that, when immediate medical treatment is required, the access chamber located on the bag may be expanded by filling the tubular gas passages from a gas source, for example a hand pump or an aerosol canister, such that the chamber expands and the medical personnel have direct and ready access to the casualty through the opening in the side of the access chamber. 
     In an alternative embodiment the litter bag is provided with a removable panel which may be interchanged with the access chamber such that the access chamber may be selectively attached to particular litter bags which are anticipated to be used for casualties requiring immediate medical treatment. 
     Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the litter bag of the present invention with the access chamber collapsed; 
     FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a litter bag of the present invention with the access chamber expanded; 
     FIG. 3 is a view taken on section 3--3 of FIG. 2 showing one of the vertical side walls of the chamber and the tubular gas passages formed along the edges; 
     FIG. 4 is an elevational view with a wall of the chamber cut away to show the connection between the chamber and an enclosure for a person giving medical treatment; and 
     FIG. 5 is a perspective view of another embodiment showing a removable panel attached to the litter bag to cover the aperture for the access chamber; 
     FIG. 6 is a perspective view of another embodiment in which the access chamber dimensionally corresponds to the litter bag in plan view. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to FIG. 1, it can be seen that an enclosure or litter bag 10 is provided having a conventional envelope-like structure. The litter bag 10 has an upper horizontal and substantially planar flexible panel 12 and an elongated opening and fastener means 14 formed along substantially the entire length of the litter bag 10 as well as extending along a portion of each of the ends of the bag 10 to form a C-shaped opening, the size and shape of the elongated opening and fastener means 14 being selected so as to facilitate insertion of a casualty into the litter bag 10. The fastener means 14 may be a conventional zipper type fastener system or, alternatively, may be of the form disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,534 which is incorporated herein by reference and wherein opposing panels may be attached to each other by fasteners provided for opening and closing openings in each of the panels. 
     A transparent panel 16 is positioned at one end of the panel 12 for permitting the casualty to view out of the litter bag 10, and a medical access chamber 18 is positioned approximately centrally on the surface of the panel 12 at its other end. The access chamber 18 is positioned over an aperture 19 formed in the panel 12 (see FIG. 5) such that the interior of the access chamber 18 is in communication with the interior of the litter bag 10. 
     Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the access chamber 18 is formed as a collapsible structure which has a compact form when not in use and which can be expanded for use, as depicted in FIG. 2. The access chamber 18 has four vertical side walls 20 formed of a flexible material which may fold down into &#34;accordion folds&#34;, as shown in FIG. 1, and which are attached to and oriented substantially perpendicular to the horizontal planar surface 12. The vertical walls 20 are joined to one another by vertical edges 24 and are attached to a horizontal panel 26 along horizontal edges 28. The horizontal panel 26 is provided with a transparent window 30 for allowing medical personnel to view into the chamber 18 when administering medical treatment. 
     The access chamber 18 is preferably formed integrally with the litter bag 10 and thus it is readily available whenever medical treatment is required. When the chamber 18 is needed for administering medical treatment, the vertical walls 20 may be readily expanded through use of means formed in the vertical and horizontal edges 24, 28. 
     In accordance with the invention, and with particular reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the vertical and horizontal edges 24, 28 of the access chamber 18 are formed with tubular gas passages 32 which essentially form a parallelepiped structure. As may be best seen in FIG. 3, the gas passages 32 may be formed by flexible inner tubes 34 which are encased within the material of the walls 20. The wall material may be formed out of a flexible plastic material which may be either heat sealed or sewn around the inner tubes 34, and is preferably formed of a material which is impermeable to any contaminants which are expected to be found in the environment in which the litter bag 10 and access chamber 18 are to be used. 
     The tubular gas passages 32 may be alternatively formed integrally with the walls of the access chamber 18. In this case, the access chamber walls 20 must be formed of a material which is impermeable to the pressurized gas used to fill the gas passages 32. 
     The gas passages 32 are provided with means 36 for connection to a source 38 of pressurized gas. Any conventional pressurized gas source 38 may be provided, for example, an aerosol canister or a hand pump. Upon applying a pressurized gas source 38 to the means 36 for connecting the source 38 to the tubular gas passages 32, the access chamber 18 moves from the position shown in FIG. 1, in which the side walls 20 are folded down upon themselves and the upper panel 26 is in a location adjacent to the lower portion of the access chamber 18, to a position in which the upper panel 26 is distal from the lower portion of the access chamber 18 and the side walls 20 are formed as substantially planar surfaces, as shown in FIG. 2. 
     When the access chamber 18 is in the position shown in FIG. 2 with the walls 20 positioned vertically relative to the horizontal panel 12 of the litter bag 10, an opening having a fastener means 39 attached thereto is exposed for connection to a second enclosure 40 (FIG. 4). The second enclosure 40 is provided for protecting a person administering medical treatment from the contaminated environment. The enclosure 40 is preferably provided with an elongated opening and a fastener means 41 attached thereto which is compatible with the fastener means 39 located on the wall 20 of the access chamber 18. The fasteners 39, 41 and associated slide member are preferably of the form disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,534 and described above in reference to fastener means 14. 
     Thus, the fastener means 39 may be joined to the fastener means 41 as the elongated openings in the access chamber 18 and the enclosure 40 are simultaneously opened such that a person within the enclosure 40 may have direct access into the access chamber 18 and thus into the litter bag 10 through the aperture 19. It should be noted that although only one slider for the fastener means 39 is shown positioned for sliding downward to open the chamber 18 in FIG. 2, an additional slider may be positioned at the bottom of the fastener means 39 which may be slid upward to open the chamber 18, such that the fastener means 39 may be operated in either direction when attaching the enclosure 40 to the chamber 18. 
     In a typical use of the access chamber 18, the litter bag 10 containing the casualty may be placed on a table such that the bottom of the chamber 18 is approximately waist high to medical personnel operating on the casualty. In addition, the access chamber 18 may extend upward to approximately shoulder height of the medical personnel such that when the enclosure 40 containing a medic is attached to the chamber 18, the medic may easily reach into the chamber 18 to operate on the casualty while also being able to view into the chamber 18 through the transparent panel 30 as treatment is being administered. 
     Further, by providing a litter bag 10 which has an access chamber 18 with flexible walls 20 which are collapsible, means are provided for treating a casualty without substantially increasing the bulk of the litter bag 10. In addition, by providing the bag 10 with an access chamber 18 already attached when the casualty is placed within the bag 10, the inconvenience and delay associated with trying to attach a flexible chamber to a litter bag is avoided. 
     An alternative embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 5, in which the access chamber 18 is removable from the litter bag 10 and a removable flap 42 is provided for covering the aperture 19 in the litter bag 10. In this case, a fastener means 44 is provided, which may be a conventional zipper type system or may be of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,534, and which is compatible with fasteners on the bottom of the access chamber 18 and the removable flap 42. Thus, a group of litter bags 10 provided with removable flaps 42 may be stored until needed and access chambers 18 may be attached to the litter bags 10 selectively as casualties needing immediate treatment are anticipated. 
     In another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 6, the collapsible access chamber 118 is formed with gas passages 132 similar to the previous embodiments and the chamber 118 may be formed with the same dimensions in a plan view as the dimensions of the litter bag 110 such that the sides 120 of the access chamber 118 form a continuation of and are substantially coplanar with the sides of the litter bag 110. Also, additional fastener means 139 of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,534 may be provided such that medical personnel may have access to the casualty along the entire length of the litter bag 110. In addition, the top panel 126 may be provided with a transparent window 130 and portions of the sides 120 of the access chamber 118 may be formed with transparent panels 146 to improve visibility into the chamber 118. In this embodiment the elongated opening and fastener means 114 for receiving a casualty into the bag 110 will be positioned on the side of the bag 110 below the chamber 118. 
     While the forms of apparatus herein described constitute preferred embodiments of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to these precise forms of apparatus, and that changes may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention which is defined in the appended claims.