Patent ID: 7805786

Claim:
An ambulance cot, comprising: a wheeled base; a patient litter, said patient litter comprising: a pair of hollow, laterally spaced, longitudinally extending side rails, said side rails being configured to extend from a head end to a foot end of the patient litter; at least one retractable, generally U-shaped litter section with at least one hand grip oriented thereon adjacent a bight portion thereof, the legs of said U-shaped litter section being configured to be slidably received into the interior of the respective longitudinally extending side rails, each said parallel legs having first and second sections and a hinge configuration interconnecting said first and second sections together, said hinge configuration being oriented off-set from a central axis of said first and second sections; and a locking mechanism for releasably locking said first and second sections together so as to prevent relative movement therebetween and for unlocking the connection so as to permit a relative movement therebetween about an axis of said hinge configuration, whereby when said U-shaped litter section is in an extended position and said latch mechanism is in an unlocked condition, said first and second sections will be moveable with respect to one another to orient said hand grip at a different elevation.