- 1 AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Innovation Patent Invention Title: Clothing Apparel Applicant: Malcolm James McKinnon David Allan McKinnon The invention is described in the following statement: -2 Technical Field The invention described herein relates to a clothing article or apparel. In particular, the invention is directed to clothing apparel for identifying a post operative or recovering patient, although the scope of the invention is not necessarily 5 limited thereto. Background Art Many patients are not fully recovered when released from hospitals or clinics. Accordingly, care should be taken around post operative or recovering patients, 10 especially in the case of patients recovering from major surgery, who are likely to be fairly vulnerable. Once released from special care, the patient may not be easily recognised by the general public as a recovering patient who requires special consideration and 15 care. As such, problems may arise if members of the general public are careless or acting inconsiderately near a recovering patient. For example, in a crowded area, a member of the public may accidentally push or bump into a recovering patient, thereby causing harm to the recovering patient. 20 It is an aim of the invention to provide clothing apparel which overcomes or ameliorates one or more of the disadvantages or problems described above, or which at least provides the consumer with a useful choice. Summary of the Invention 25 According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided clothing apparel for a discharged patient, the clothing apparel having one or more signs capable of -3 indicating to the general public that the patient is recovering from surgery, the one or more signs being visible from more than one side of the discharged patient. In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a clothing article for 5 identifying a post operative or recovering person, the clothing article adapted to be worn outside clothing and having at least one identifying indicium to identify the person as post operative or in recovery. The clothing article or apparel may be any suitable item of clothing. For 10 example, the clothing article or apparel may be a jump suit, a jacket, a top, a bottom or the like. Typically, the clothing article or apparel covers the upper body and is loose fitting. Preferably, the clothing article or apparel is large enough to be comfortably worn on the outside of clothing. More preferably, the clothing article or apparel is a vest. 15 The one or more signs can be any suitable shape or form capable of indicating that the wearer of the clothing article or apparel is a recovering patient. For example, the one or more signs may be a logo such as a cross and/or words such as 'recovering patient'. The one or more signs may be or any suitable colour and 20 size. Preferably, the one or more signs are obvious and visible from several metres away. The clothing article or apparel may be single sided or reversible. 25 The clothing article or apparel may comprise any suitable fastening means. For example, the clothing article or apparel may be fastened using hook-and-loop fasteners, one or more zips, hooks, buttons, straps or the like. The clothing article or apparel may be fastened at the front or the back of the 30 wearer. Alternatively, the clothing article or apparel may not require any fastening means.
-4 A person skilled in the art would understand that the clothing article or apparel may be worn by any suitable person who is weak and/or ill and requires special consideration and/or care in public areas. 5 The identifying indicia will preferably be or include medical status indication indicia capable of conveying the wearer's medical status easily and quickly to the public at large. The clothing article may also be provided in a number of configurations with 10 identifying indicia capable of indicating medical status as the patient recovers, that is a medical status indicator that can be adjusted to reflect the changing status or alternatively, different clothing articles may be provided for different medical statuses. This could include different indicia, or for example, different coloured clothing articles. Again as an example, a red coloured clothing article could 15 represent the highest risk persons and a graduated colour scheme used to indicate persons of progressively lower risk. The clothing article may also be padded or be provided with one or more pockets or similar attachment or location means such as straps or the like in order to 20 locate padding relative to the clothing. The pockets or similar attachment or location means may be provided at various locations about the vest and padding may be selectively located to overlay the location of the body which may require addition protection against accidental impacts. This will leave the arms and hands of the patient free. 25 The pockets may contain padding or similar. The pockets may be capable of being closed to contain the padding. Attachment or location means such as straps or the like could alternatively be used to attach padding to the clothing in order to protect the person and leave arms and hands free. 30 -5 The pockets, attachment or location means may be inside or outside the clothing article. The pockets may have straps, zips, buttons or hook-and-loop fasteners to secure the padding inside the pockets. 5 Elastic bands or straps may also be used to hold a padding device such as a pillow against the clothing article. The elastic bands or straps may be attached to the clothing apparel at one or both ends. Alternatively, the elastic bands or straps may not be attached to the clothing apparel and may be wrapped around the body of the patient to hold the padding device over a particular body part. 10 Other retention means such as a flap (or similar) of material which can be folded over a padding device may be used. The piece of material may be attached to the clothing along one edge and fastened to the clothing article along an opposite edge, thereby forming a sleeve between the piece of material and the clothing article 1s to accommodate a padding device such as a pillow or cushion. Any suitable fastening means may be used, for example, straps, zips, buttons or hook-and-loop fasteners and the like may be used. The retention means, pocket, attachment or location means could also find 20 use to maintain other therapeutic devices in place relative to the person wearing the clothing. Examples are compresses, heat or cold packs or more advanced items such as TENS machines or massage devices. In order that the invention may be more readily understood and put into 25 practice, one or more preferred embodiments thereof will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 illustrates the front of a vest in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. 30 Figure 2 illustrates the back of the vest shown in Figure 1.
-6 Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment Figures 1 and 2 illustrate a vest 10 having signs capable of indicating that the wearer is a recovering patient. The vest 10 has a back 12 and front portions 14, 16. The front portions 14, 16 are fastened together using hook-and-loop fasteners. The vest 10 has various signs on the front and back portions 12, 14, 16 of the vest such that the signs are obvious and visible from more than one side of the wearer. 10 Figure 1 illustrates that the front of the vest has two crosses 20 and 22, each cross 20, 22 occupying one front portion 14 or 16. The crosses 20, 22 are positioned around the mid portion of the vest 10. Figure 2 illustrates that the back 12 of the vest 10 has a cross 24 around the 15 upper central position of the back 12. The cross 24 is accompanied by words 26 'PATIENT RECOVERY VEST' below the cross 24. The words 26 are positioned around the central portion of the back 12. The front and back crosses 14, 16, 24 and the words 26 on the vest 10 are 20 sufficiently large such that they are visible from several metres away. The colour(s) of the front and back crosses 14, 16, 24 and the words 26 contrast(s) from the colour(s) of the vest 10 to assist their obviousness and visibility. The crosses 14, 16, 24 and the words 26 alert members of the public that the wearer is a recovering patient. 25 The vest 10 is loose fitting and is suitably sized to fit outside clothing. The vest 10 can be worn by patients who are discharged from a hospital or clinic to enable members of the public to immediately understand that the wearer is a recovering patient and care should be taken around the patient. 30 -7 The foregoing embodiment is intended to be illustrative of the invention, without limiting the scope thereof. The invention is capable of being practised with various modifications and additions as will readily occur to those skilled in the art. 5 Accordingly, it is to be understood that the scope of the invention is not to be limited to the exact construction and operation described and illustrated, but only by the following claims which are intended to include all suitable modifications and equivalents permitted by the applicable law. 10 The term "comprise" and variants of that term such as "comprises" or "comprising" are used herein to denote the inclusion of a stated integer or integers but not to exclude any other integer or any other integers, unless in the context or usage an exclusive interpretation of the term is required. 15 Reference to prior art disclosures in this specification is not an admission that the disclosures constitute common general knowledge in Australia.