Patent ID: 7347838

Claim:
A needle tip protector comprising: a needle having a shaft and a sharp tip end; a support member telescoped over the needle shaft; a pair of spring arms extending from the support in a direction toward the sharp tip end; and a pair of apertured members each connected to a respective one of the pair of spring arms, the spring arms providing a bias to urge the apertured members out of alignment, the needle shaft extending through the apertures of the apertured members in a loaded position of the needle, such that when the needle is retracted from the loaded position to an unloaded position with the shaft removed from at least one of the apertures, the apertured members will be urged out of alignment to provide a baffier to the needle tip whereby to impede movement of the needle from the unloaded position to the loaded position, the apertured members being urged inwardly relative to each other by the spring arms.