The present invention relates to an infant warming apparatus and, more particularly, to an examination/procedure light that is integrated into an infant care apparatus.
In the care of newborn infants, there is an infant warmer apparatus that is used to provide warming of the infant and to supply the necessary heat to maintain the infant at a predetermined temperature. The infant warmer basically comprises a planar surface on which the infant is positioned and which planar surface normal includes side guards to keep the infant safely within the confines of the apparatus.
Infant warmers normally also have a overhead radiant heater that is located above the infant and which thus radiates energy in the infrared spectrum to impinge upon the infant to maintain the infant at the desired temperature. With infant warmers, since the infant is otherwise totally exposed to the surroundings, there is almost unlimited access to the infant by the attending personnel to perform various procedures on that infant. A typical infant warmer is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,517 of Falk et al as prior art to that patent.
Since there is such wide open access to the infant, the infant warmer is normally used where there is some intervention or procedure to be carried out on the infant while resting on the planar surface. Since some, if not all, of such procedures are delicate, it is normally necessary to have some source of illumination of the infant so that the attending personnel can have sufficient light to view the infant as a whole, or to concentrate the light on a localized region of the infant in carrying out the procedure.
Accordingly, with infant warmers, there is generally a procedure light that is separately and independently provided with an infant warmer and which is either set up to be a free standing light or is affixed to the infant warmer in some manner as an add-on to the infant warmer. Such lights are also mounted so as to be movable so that the beam of light can be moved to the particular location on the infant where the light is needed.
Alternatively, there is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,205 of Finny, a light that is mounted in the overhead housing of an infant warmer, however, the light of the Finny patent is a fixed light having no apparent means of moving the light beam to a specific location and also, there is no means disclosed where the light beam of the Finny patent can be focused between a broad beam and a smaller, focused beam.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a integrated mounting for the procedure light so that the procedure light can be centrally located and can be built into the infant warmer and which may also be manually movable, omnidirectionally, by the user as well as being focusable so that the user can broaden or narrow the beam of light.