Patent ID: 8281419

Claim:
A spinal column protective apparatus to reduce extent of an impact related injury comprising: a collar comprising a multi-layer protective foam front region, back region, left lateral region, and right lateral region that produce an irregular shape adapted to substantially encompass and protect a user's neck area from an initial impact energy, wherein the left lateral region extends with a concavity from a leftmost end of the front region and a leftmost end of the back region to a peak that is above a height of the front region and a height of the back region, and wherein the right lateral region extends with a concavity from a rightmost end of the front region and a rightmost end of the back region to a peak that is above the height of the front region and the height of the back region, and wherein the multi-layer protective foam for each region of the front, back, left lateral, and right lateral regions comprises a pliable outermost edge to absorb the initial impact energy and at least one additional protective layer; wherein the additional protective layer requires a greater impact energy to deform than the pliable outermost edge; a rigid chassis comprising support means, an upper protective projection, a lower protective projection, and a set of fasteners, the support means having a concave shape adapted to be supported atop a shoulder region of a user, the upper protective projection comprising a rigid outer shell extending upward from the support means to at least a height of the collar so as to surround the back region, left lateral region, and right lateral region of the collar, the lower protective projection comprising a rigid outer shell continuously extending downward from the support means to a length that is adapted to protect a spinal column of the user; and a shim extension apparatus to customize impact energy absorption properties of the collar, the shim extension apparatus fills a gap between an underside of the collar and the upper protective projection of the rigid chassis to custom fit absorption energy properties of the collar, wherein the shim extension comprises a plurality of inserts with one insert of the plurality of inserts directly coupling to at least one of an underside of the collar and the set of fasteners.