Grab bar

Abstract

A load bearing grab bar to be used in public and household restrooms to aid elderly or handicapped people in lowering or raising themselves from a toilet of wheelchair. The grab bar is attached to either the wall or an existing handrail, and has a adjustable support leg to provide better stability when weight is applied. The grab bar rotates from a vertical stored position to a horizontal in-use position to allow for better and safer mobility around home bathroom or public toilet stall.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a grab bar apparatus that may be used to enable an individual the ability to improve their balance, positioning, and weight bearing status when transferring from a toilet seat or a wheelchair to a standing position. More particularly a grab bar that is foldable, improves safety when transferring in the bathroom, secure, and helps users to regain / maintain their independence. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Severe accidents often occur in the bathroom of residential homes or public restrooms. The reason for this being that many bathroom items, such as bathtubs, toilets, and floors, are made out of smooth solid material, such as porcelain, tile, marble, and metal. Complicating matters worse, these materials have a tendency of becoming slippery when wet. This factor proposes a dangerous threat to bathroom users, as slipping on such surfaces can result in serious physical injury. For the disabled, elderly, and young children t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011] The present invention improves upon the various previous methods of assisting a user in moving between a toilet seat and standing stance, as well as cited patents by being efficient to use, convenient, space saving, all while not hindering the movement of the user.

[0012] The present invention mounts on to an existing convention grab bar and is comprised of a grip bar linked with a support leg. The grip bar is formed of a first bar and a second bar. The first bar slopes down and intersects with the extending straight second bar and a center point. The end of the grip bar has a rubber cap to seal the end of the bar, which the user may grip. In an alternative embodiment, the grip bar may be designed in an angled configuration to provide a better grip for the user.

[0013] The grip bar extends perpendicular from the wall, when pulled in a downward horizontal position for use. This configuration provides enough surrounding area to securely grip the bar in order to lower or rise from a seated position comfortably.

[0014] When the present invention is lowered into a horizontal position for use, a support leg, which is connected to the grip bar through a hinge connector, extends to the floor. Such a configuration allows the user to bear weight on the support leg safely and securely. The support leg features a height adjustment component that allows the user to ad

Problems solved by technology

Severe accidents often occur in the bathroom of residential homes or public restrooms.

Complicating matters worse, these materials have a tendency of becoming slippery when wet.

This factor proposes a dangerous threat to bathroom users, as slipping on such surfaces can result in serious physical injury.

For the disabled, elderly, and young children the risk of serious injury increases, despite whether or not surfaces in the bathroom are wet.

A main problem for such persons, especially the elderly and disabled, becomes using the bathroom.

This problem is particularly cumbersome for those frail persons residing in their own residential homes that are not getting in-depth care or assistance, such as the care provided in a hospital or by a full-time nurse.

Such persons are by and large capable of caring for themselves but are still fairly weak, thus simple tasks like using the bathroom become greatly burdensome.

This configuration provides complications for people with small or frail hands who cannot grab the handrail securely, and thus the handrail becomes useless for such users and the danger of serious injury remains present.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,237 issued to Richard E. Marzee on Nov. 25, 1997 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,344 issued to Torbett B. Guenther on Sep. 5, 2000 both show forms of conventional straight grab bars that are mounted on the wall, yet unlike the present invention these devices are mounted a small distance off the wall thus making them difficult for the user to reach, as well as limit mobility for the user to obtain a strong two-handed grasp.

Also given that that these devices require the user to push themselves up, which requires more upper body stre

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