THROAT OBSTRUCTION DISLODGING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR ITS USE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a device that is inserted into a person's mouth and helps dislodge an obstruction lodged within the person's throat.

2. Background of the Prior Art

Parents of children, especially young children, tend to have many worries on their minds with regard to their children. From SIDS, to swine flu, to injuries due to falls, to the various ailments that can afflict children, parents' worries can sometimes seem daunting. One major fear for parents of young children is choking. Many young kids, typically those under the age of three, will put most everything and anything into their mouth. While some such items may simply be disgusting, other items, such as small parts can get lodged in a child's throat leading to an obstruction so that the child is unable to breathe possibly leading to death. Manufacturers of toys and other items designed for children, put warning labels onto their products that alert parents to the presence of small parts that can pose a choking hazard. However, it is nearly impossible to keep every small item that is capable of choking a child out of the child's reach. Older children may have toys that have small parts which toys the younger child can easily gain access to, especially if the older child does not clean up after playing - children tend to lack the safety diligence of parents. While playing outside, a small child can easily place a rock or other object into his or her mouthing leading to choking. Even the most vigilant parent cannot maintain constant visual contact with the young child. It only takes a few seconds for a potentially disastrous situation to commence.

While emergency personnel are trained to dislodge an obstruction in a child's throat, or otherwise provide an air passage if the obstruction cannot be readily removed (emergency tracheotomy), brain damage begins after the brain has been deprived of oxygen for aboiu three minutes, faster for younger children. Therefore, unless trained emergency personal are onsite almost immediately after the object lodges in a child's throat, the potential for an adverse outcome is great.

Although the potential for choking tends to be highest among young children, adults are not immune from choking potential. Food going down the throat the wrong way can potentially lead to choking in an adult. If the adult is in a restaurant or other public place, another person can initiate the Heimlich maneuver on the choking person. Even if the person is not properly trained in the Heimlich, a less than perfect attempt can dislodge the obstruction, even if it does cause minor injury to the choking person. After all, a cracked rib is far superior to death. However, in a relatively secluded place, such as a person's om where the person may be at home alone or only with his or her spouse, improperly lodged food has greater potential for choking. A person alone cannot perform the Heimlich on themselves. If a spouse is present and is either too feeble or too scared to perform the Heimlich, the next best resort is summoning emergency personal. As noted above, such summoning may not prove adequate.

What is needed is a device that can quickly dislodge an obstruction from a person's throat in order to prevent choking. Such a device must be very easy to use so that a person who has not used the device before and who may be in a panic, can quickly employ the device in order to remove the obstruction and potentially save a life. Ideally, such a device will be of relatively simple design and construction so as to be affordable to a large portion of the population. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The throat obstruction dislodging device of the present invention addresses the aforementioned needs in the art by providing a device that can be quickly deployed in the case of a throat obstruction and can remove the obstruction in order to prevent choking. The throat obstruction dislodging device is designed to be nearly foolproof so that a person who is unfamiliar with the device can still employ the device effectively in a very rapid amount of time. A choking person can use the device on himself or herself. The throat obstruction dislodging device is of relatively simple design and construction so as to be relatively inexpensive to produce so that it is relatively affordable to a large segment of the population.

The throat obstruction dislodging device is comprised of a flexible jacket that has a hollow tubular interior. The jacket has a first end, an opposing outwardly flared second end, and a first medial section therebetween such that at least one harmonic rib is located on the medial section proximate the flared second end. A face cover is attached to the second end of the jacket. A barrel has an open proximal end, an open distal end, and a second medial section therebetween, such that the barrel is partially received within the hollow interior of the jacket with the distal end located just above the first end. A plunger is slidably disposed within the proximal end such that when the plunger is depressed and then drawn outwardly through the proximal end, suction is created within the barrel and air is drawn into barrel through the distal end. The cover has an annular lip that extends generally toward the first end. A stop is located on the plunger such that the stop prevents depression of the plunger into the barrel unless the stop is overcome by a user. The stop comprises a shank located along a length of the plunger such that the shank is resiliently attached to the plunger and articulates between a first normally relaxed first position extending outwardly from a pocket on the plunger formed by creating the shank and a second position wherein the shank is received within the pocket, such that the shank prevents depression of the plunger into the barrel when in the first position and allows depression of the plunger into the barrel when in the second position, the shank being placed into the second position by a simple squeeze of the shank into its pocket by a user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is an environmental view of the throat obstruction dislodging device of the present invention being used on a person with an obstruction in the throat.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the throat obstruction dislodging device.

Figure 3 is a sectioned view of the throat obstruction dislodging device with the plunger depressed.

Figure 4 is a sectioned view of the throat obstruction dislodging device with the plunger retracted.

Similar reference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views of "he drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawings, it is seen that the throat obstruction dislodging device of the present invention, generally denoted by reference numeral 10, is comprised of a barrel 12 that has a proximal end 14, a distal end 16, each of which is open, and a medial section 18 therebetween, the barrel 12 also having a hollow interior passage 20. The barrel 12 is made from an appropriate plastic or similar material, preferably a bioacceptable material.

As seen, the barrel 12 is received within a jacket 22 that has a hollow interior 24, a first end 26 and a second end 28, essentially a hollow tubular member. The first end 26 has a generally U-shaped cover 30 thereat, the cover 30 having a rounded end 32 and a somewhat flat end 34 and an annular lip 36 that faces generally toward the second end 28. The second end 28 has a series of harmonic ribs 38 that terminate in an outwardly flared end 40, the ribs 38 allowing increased flexing of the tubular member. The jacket 22 is a resilient member that is made from an appropriate resilient and flexible material such as rubber or rubberized plastic, etc., which may be bioacceptable. A portion of the barrel 12 is snugly received within the hollow interior 24 of the jacket 22 such that the distal end 16 of the barrel 12 terminates just above the series of ribs 34 and a portion of the barrel 12 extends outwardly from the first end 26 of the jacket 22. The barrel 12 is snug fit within the jacket 22 so that relative movement between the two is minimal and the barrel 12 may be securely affixed to the jacket 22 in appropriate fashion such as via an appropriate adhesive holding the two elements 12 and 22 together, having the tubular section of the jacket 22 heat shrunk onto the barrel 12, etc.

A plunger 42 is slidably disposed through the proximal end 14 of the barrel 12. The plunger 42 has a first end 44 and a second end 46 with a piston 48 made from rubber or similar material located on the first end 44. The plunger 42 may have a similar shape to the shape of the interior passage 20 of the barrel 12, or, as illustrated, may be formed from a series of legs 50 formed into a cross pattern as is common in current plunger assemblies. The piston 48 has an annular groove 52 that has one or more O-rings 54 disposed therein so that the plunger 48 and the O-rings 54 create a relatively airtight fit within the barrel 12. These O-rings 54 are made from a typical O-ring material resilient material, preferably a bioacceptable material, such as rubber or neoprene. The plunger 42 also has a handle 56 5 located on the second end 46 with at least one shoulder 58 (one shoulder 58 per leg 50 of the plunger 42) located on the plunger 42 below the handle 56. Drawing the plunger 42 from the distal end 16 to the proximal end 14 of the barrel 12 creates suction within the barrel 12 thereby drawing air through the distal end 16 toward the plunger 42.

As seen, at least two of the opposing legs 50 may have a generally L-shaped cut 60

10 within each leg 50 so that a shank 62 is formed thereby, which shank 62 is resiliently bent outwardly away from the remainder of the leg 50 leaving a pocket 64 therebehind. The shanks 62 act as stops as more fully explained below.

In order to use the throat obstruction dislodging device 10 of the present invention, the plunger 42 is pushed into the barrel 12 as far as possible toward the distal end 16 of the barrel

15 12. As seen in figure 4, the shanks 62, by being resiliently bent outwardly, act as stops in order to prevent depression of the plunger 42 toward the distal end 16 of the barrel 12. In order to overcome this stop force created by the shanks 62, the user squeezes the opposing shanks 62 together into their respective pockets 64 sufficiently until the shanks 62 can bypass the edge of the proximal end 14 of the barrel 12 in order to allow the plunger 42 to fully

20 travel toward the distal end 16 of the barrel 12. The shoulders 60 on the legs 50 of the

plunger 42, by being collectively wider than the diameter of the passage 20 of the barrel 12, act as limit stops for plunger 42 travel. At this point the second end 28 of the jacket 22 is inserted into the mouth M of the person P having the obstruction O until the second end 28 is generally at the top of the person's throat T. In this position, the distal end 16 of the barrel 12 5 is intubated within the throat T of the person with the flared end 40 of the jacket 22 along with the O-rings 54 and the piston 48 of the plunger 42 help form a seal within the throat T while the ribs 38 help the jacket 22 curve within the mouth M and throat T of the person P as needed during intubation. The cover 30 is positioned over the person's face F with the person chin C received within the flat end 34 and the rounded end 32 pressing up into the nose N of the person P in order to cover the nostrils and thereby close air passage through the nose N. The annular lip 36 extends down over the face F in order to further help seal the mouth M and nose N so as to create as air tight a seal as possible thereby helping increase the suction torce created by the device 10 within the throat T. The cover 30 also acts as a stop and helps prevent over insertion of the jacket 22 into the throat T. The plunger 42, being fully depressed, is drawn outwardly via the handle 56 such that the withdrawing piston 48 creates a suction within the barrel 12 which causes air to be drawn into the barrel 12 via the distal end 16 which air is drawn upward through the throat T. This drawn air creates suction within the throat T which suction helps draw the obstruction O up and out of the throat T. For a particularly deep lodged obstruction O, a second iteration of use of the device 10 may be needed with the device 10 being removed from the person's throat T and mouth M prior to depressing the plunger 20 back into the barrel 12. When the shanks 62 are drawn out of the barrel 12, the shanks 62 resiliently spring outwardly out of their pockets 64 and the shames 62 are again positioned to act as stops to prevent depression of the plunger 42 back into the barrel 12 without actively overcoming the stop force of the shanks 62. This prevents accidental plunger 42 depression while the obstruction O is still within the throat T or mouth M of the person P.

The throat obstruction dislodging device 10 may come in various sizes for various sized people P such as a child sized device 10 and an adult sized device 10 with the size and length of the jacket 22 and the size of the face cover 30 being adjusted accordingly (of course, more than two sizes are possible). As an additional option, an electronic sound producing device (not illustrated) can be located on the cover 30 (or possibly the barrel 12 or to the jacket), which sound producing device has a prerecorded message thereon (on a memory chip) such that the pressing of a button triggers activation of the sound producing device which produces the message through a speaker (piezo-electric speaker, or similar), which message is instructions on proper use of the device 10 so that a person not familiar with the device presses the activation button and listens to the instruction on proper device 10 usage, which instructions can be paused or replayed s needed. Of course a small written message is placed on the cover 30 instructing a user to depress the activation button in order to receive the instructional message.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to an embodiment thereof, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.