Garment for Dialysis Patients
The present invention provides a garment that includes a neck opening, a front portion, a back portion, and a first and second opposing sleeve portions, and a first, second, third and fourth closable openings. The first and second closable openings extend substantially from a cuff to a shoulder end of the first sleeve portion or the neck opening. The third and fourth closable opening extend substantially from the neck opening to an underarm portion of a first side of the front portion. The garment may also include a pair of pants having a first pant and a second pant each having a front portion and a back portion, and a first and second closable openings extending substantially from an abdomen area to a knee area or ankle area of the front portion of the first and second pants.
This patent application is a non-provisional application of U.S. provisional patent application 60/776,254 filed on Feb. 24, 2006 and entitled “Garment for Dialysis Patients,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates generally to the field of garments and, more particularly, to a garment worn by a patient during dialysis treatments.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONMany people, both adults and children, require ongoing medical treatment in which medical practitioners must access certain areas of the body. The medical treatments may be, but are not limited to, dialysis, chemotherapy, post operative treatment and attention to diagnostic equipment. Often these treatments require the patient to expose private areas of their body for extended periods of time in a semi-public area (e.g., a room or ward with other patients without any walls or curtains) because the attending medical personal must visually monitor the treatment area. As a result, the patient must endure the embarrassment and indignity of being partially naked in addition to enduring the medical treatment. For example, a woman undergoing a dialysis treatment may be required to expose her breast for several hours. Since each treatment can last several hours and these treatments can go on for years, they create an ongoing source of anxiety that can affect the mental state of the patient, which may reduce the successfulness of the treatments.
Although the medical facilities could provide garments or gowns for the patients, this would increase the cost of the treatments and lengthen the time the patient has to be at the facility. In addition, the patients would likely feel even more uncomfortable. Alternatively, several specialty garments have been designed to provide access to a patient's treatment areas. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,763 provides access to the chest region, but completely exposes the breast; U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,279 provides a surgical garment, but does not have openings in the correct place or look like “street clothes”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,851 provides a garment for handicapped or elderly individuals, but does not have openings in the correct place or look like “street clothes”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,477,710 provides a garment for concealing medical appliances, but does not have openings in the correct place or look like “street clothes”; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,552 provides garment having flaps to expose certain areas of the body, but exposes large areas of the body with unwieldy and unattractive flaps. These designs, however, do not really solve the problem because they expose a larger area of the body than is necessary, are not flexible enough to provide access to the most commonly used areas of the body for ongoing medical treatments and/or use unwieldy and unattractive flaps. Moreover all these designs look like “patient” clothes; they do not look like “street clothes.”
Accordingly, there is a need for a garment that is attractive, looks like “street clothes”, provides access to the most commonly used areas of the body for ongoing medical treatments, does not expose too much of the body and thus maintains the privacy and dignity of the patent. All of which will improve the mental state of the patient.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention provides a garment that is attractive, looks like “street clothes”, provides access to the most commonly used areas of the body for ongoing medical treatments, does not expose too much of the body and thus maintains the privacy and dignity of the patent. All of which will improve the mental state of the patient.
More specifically, the present invention provides a garment (e.g., jacket, shirt, blouse, pullover, warm-up suit top, jogging suit top, sweat suit top, etc.) that includes a neck opening, a front portion, a back portion, and a first and second opposing sleeve portions, and a first, second, third and fourth closable openings. The first closable opening extends substantially from a cuff to a shoulder end of the first sleeve portion or the neck opening. The second closable opening extends substantially from a cuff to a shoulder end of the second sleeve portion or the neck opening. The third closable opening extends substantially from the neck opening to an underarm portion of a first side of the front portion. The fourth closable opening extends substantially from the neck opening to an underarm portion of a second side of the front portion. First, second, third and fourth closable openings can be secured with one or more fasteners, such as zippers, hook and loop tape (e.g., Velcro®, etc.), snaps, buttons or a combination thereof. Moreover, first, second, third and fourth closable openings are preferably hidden by a seam, flap or a combination thereof.
In addition, the present invention provides a garment that includes a pair of pants (e.g., slacks, warm-up suit bottom, jogging suit bottom, sweat suit bottom, etc.) having a first pant and a second pant each having a front portion and a back portion, a first closable opening extending substantially from an abdomen area to a knee area or ankle area of the front portion of the first pant, and a second closable opening extending substantially from the abdomen area to a knee area or an ankle area of the front portion of the second pant. First and second closable openings can be secured with one or more fasteners, such as zippers, hook and loop tape (e.g., Velcro®, etc.), snaps, buttons or a combination thereof. Moreover, first and second closable openings are preferably hidden by a seam, flap or a combination thereof.
The present invention is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The above and further advantages of the invention may be better understood by referring to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
While the making and using of various embodiments of the present invention are discussed in detail below, it should be appreciated that the present invention provides many applicable inventive concepts that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The specific embodiments discussed herein are merely illustrative of specific ways to make and use the invention and do not delimit the scope of the invention. The discussion herein relates primarily to garments for dialysis patients, but it will be understood that the concepts of the present invention are applicable to any garment that provides medical access to a patient while maintaining the privacy of the patient.
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Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
Claims
1. A garment comprising:
- a jacket having a neck opening, a front portion, a back portion, and a first and second opposing sleeve portions;
- a first closable opening extending substantially from a cuff to a shoulder end of the first sleeve portion;
- a second closable opening extending substantially from a cuff to a shoulder end of the second sleeve portion;
- a third closable opening extending substantially from the neck opening to an underarm portion of a first side of the front portion; and
- a fourth closable opening extending substantially from the neck opening to an underarm portion of a second side of the front portion.
2. The garment as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the first, second, third and fourth closable openings are positioned to facilitate dialysis treatments.
3. The garment as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the first, second, third and fourth closable openings are:
- secured with a fastener; or
- hidden by a seam, a flap or a combination thereof.
4. The garment as recited in claim 3, wherein the fastener comprises one or more zippers, hook and loop tape, snaps, buttons or a combination thereof.
5. The garment as recited in claim 1, wherein the first and second closable openings extend substantially from the cuff to the neck opening.
6. The garment as recited in claim 1, further comprising one or more decorative designs on the jacket.
7. The garment as recited in claim 1, wherein the jacket comprises a pullover, a warm-up suit top, a jogging suit top or a sweat suit top.
8. A garment comprising:
- a pair of pants comprising a first pant and a second pant each having a front portion and a back portion;
- a first closable opening extending substantially from an abdomen area to a knee area of the front portion of the first pant; and
- a second closable opening extending substantially from the abdomen area to a knee area of the front portion of the second pant.
9. The garment as recited in claim 8, wherein each of the first and second closable openings are positioned to facilitate dialysis treatments.
10. The garment as recited in claim 8, wherein each of the first and second closable openings are:
- secured with a fastener; or
- hidden by a seam, a flap or a combination thereof.
11. The garment as recited in claim 10, wherein the fastener comprises one or more zippers, hook and loop tape, snaps, buttons or a combination thereof.
12. The garment as recited in claim 8, wherein the first and second closable openings extend substantially from the abdomen area to an ankle area.
13. The garment as recited in claim 8, further comprising one or more decorative designs on the pants.
14. The garment as recited in claim 8, wherein the pants comprises a pullover, a warm-up suit bottom, a jogging suit bottom or sweat suit bottom.
15. A garment comprising:
- a jacket having a neck opening, a front portion, a back portion, a first and second opposing sleeve portions, a first closable opening extending substantially from a cuff to a shoulder end of the first sleeve portion, a second closable opening extending substantially from a cuff to a shoulder end of the second sleeve portion, a third closable opening extending substantially from the neck opening to an underarm portion of a first side of the front portion, and a fourth closable opening extending substantially from the neck opening to an underarm portion of a second side of the front portion; and
- a pair of pants comprising a first pant and a second pant each having a front portion and a back portion, a fifth closable opening extending substantially from an abdomen area to a knee area of the front portion of the first pant, and a sixth closable opening extending substantially from the abdomen area to a knee area of the front portion of the second pant.
16. The garment as recited in claim 15 wherein each of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth closable openings are positioned to facilitate dialysis treatments.
17. The garment as recited in claim 15, wherein each of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth closable openings are:
- secured with a fastener; or
- hidden by a seam, a flap or a combination thereof.
18. The garment as recited in claim 17, wherein the fastener comprises one or more zippers, hook and loop tape, snaps, buttons or a combination thereof.
19. The garment as recited in claim 15, wherein:
- the first and second closable openings extend substantially from the cuff to the neck opening; and
- the fifth and sixth closable openings extend substantially from the abdomen area to an ankle area.
20. The garment as recited in claim 15, further comprising one or more decorative designs on the jacket or pants.
21. The garment as recited in claim 15, wherein the garment comprises a warm-up suit, a jogging suit or a sweat suit.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 7, 2007
Publication Date: Aug 30, 2007
Inventor: Lucy Coronado (Fort Worth, TX)
Application Number: 11/672,387