Inspired by a giant hole in the medical equipment segment

If necessity is the mother of invention, then accident-prone inventors will always have a leg up on artificial intelligence. The Nurse’s Easy Lift and Positioner was born out of frustration. In 2007, inventor David Wolfe dislocated his shoulder after an experimental aircraft accident. He found it ludicrous that the only thing the hospital sent him home with, to keep his shoulder together, was a “five-dollar canvas sling.” He explained “No matter how I tried to alter the sling, nothing pushed my arm back into the socket as well as tilting my torso 45 degrees and jamming my elbow into the sofa arm so the humerus bone pushed all those ripped tendons up. This removed the excruciating pain from the arm’s weight pulling down on them. Tightening the sling only brought my wrist towards my chin and that gave me 10% of the relief I cried out for. I thought it was unbelievable that the hospital couldn't give me a device that sat on a bed or table that would hold my arm at the correct height and angle to provide pain relief and possibly better healing. I couldn't even find something to rent.”  

But eventually, after three or four months the shoulder healed and David went on with his life. Six years later, David suffered another injury. This time it was a roller skating accident that bent his knee sideways. This time he decided to skip the hospital and nurse himself. For months, he sat on a couch while he tried to keep his toes pointing up. The only problem with that was legs at rest (especially when a cast is involved) tilt outwards, causing knee pain and likely impeding proper knee healing. David later learned that patients often have hip problems after months of casted legs healing while lying unnaturally rotated. To counter this, David used rolled, taped-up hand towels placed under his calf to keep his toes pointed up and his knee straight. 

This time the frustration of rolled towels falling off the couch every 5 minutes motivated him to create a solution. First, he thought of a contoured cushion to cradle the leg, but without a steady base, it would fall out of place. Then the idea of an adjustable lift with a large base below and a body contoured cushion above came into focus. Then the idea of any number of cushions that clicked in and out of the lift making the lift a standard platform that could assist in moving or holding dozens of body parts. He grew to understand that “the funny thing about the evolution of an idea is you never know where the invention will take you, because, by the time I racked my brain to think of as many uses as I could, it turned out that half of the lift and cushion tasks actually do more for nurses than patients.” Wolfe was astonished to find out nurses have the highest injury rates of any profession. So when the idea of powering this lift came to bear “I decided to keep the batteries, wires, and motor off the lift entirely and place that weight in the nurse’s other hand by way of a small rechargeable socked-ended drill that attaches to a center bolt on the lift.”

Wolfe concluded that the invention needed to avoid physically taxing caregivers. “My goal was to have the lift weigh as little as a half gallon of milk. My carbon fiber fabricator guy got really close with the prototype coming in at 3.5 pounds, but he tells me a mass-manufactured unit would be under 3 pounds.”

The final prototype has 11 cushions that perform 31 tasks, including the two that formed the initial inspiration: a forearm holder for arm and shoulder injuries and a cushion that holds both legs up in the air for enhanced circulation or just one leg flat for steady healing. The nurseslift.com website details the assembly and lift capabilities. The lift kit also includes a cushion mount that attaches to the lift arm and acts like an endoskeleton for each cushion as well as a way to firmly attach the soft cushion to the lift.

“I think over time doctors, nurses, chiropractors, ALF caregivers, therapists, and the like will tell us what additional tasks they wish the lift could do, and whichever company holds the patent rights will be able to make new cushions. I get a kick out of thinking the best lift application is yet to come.“ 

The invention has received its Notice of Allowance and will have a patent number any day now. 

Professionally, 

Modern Healthcare Equipment LLC