Making Changes for Safety
Now that we had 3-Dimensional pictures, it enabled us to make any necessary changes to make transporting children the safest way possible…
The most important one was going from a 3-POINT HARNESS…or this
to this…a 5-POINT HARNESS that allowed for a single strap to be detached rather than the entire harness, so if necessary it would allow a medical technician access to injuries without risking a child’s safety
Another change of critical importance was ADDING A BACKBOARD specifically designed to fit this seat. EMS personnel needed to be able to safely immobilize and transport a child with severe head or neck injuries to an emergency care facility, transfer the injured child into their care and then depart to handle the next emergency. Without a backboard, we soon discovered this was not possible. The child could be secured directly to the device, but then the device would need to remain behind…along with all the pediatric medical supplies stored in its compartments. The safest path for the child and best for the EMS staff was for us to add a backboard to the design…so that’s what we did.
Turning our 2-Dimensional Prototype into a 3-Dimensional One
The 2-D patent drawings were really just the first step in bringing our concept to life
With a little more help from our engineer…
we added some color…and some depth…
and our concept came alive
Real Concept Drawings
A Graduate Student working towards his degree in bio-engineering came on board to draw some rough sketches and help us out. Boy did he ever. Our concept with all its specifications really came to life
It needed to be easily adjustable to accommodate children of various sizes…
It needed to be able to go from sitting up to lying flat very quickly, in case we needed to perform CPR
…and close completely for out of the way storage
It needed to have a scale built in for accurate medication dosing and storage for access to pediatric equipment
In the Beginning
It all began with an idea…then some simple crayon drawings
I started with what wasn’t working in terms of how they were transporting kids…
…and moved on to what could work
…what would solve some major problems and make a difference
