ROCKLIN TODD HOOVER, PT
Physical Therapy at Wilson Hall Rd, Sumter, SC

4904240, Feb 27, 1990

Jun 9, 1988

7/204246

Rocklin L. Hoover - Sumter SC

A61M 500

604 53

A method and apparatus for starting and feeding intravenous solutions through a catheter is disclosed comprising two chambers in tandem, the first chamber having a catheter attached to one end, a resealing port opposite the catheter and a permanent tube port for receiving intravenous solutions into the first chamber, and the second chamber, or flash chamber, having a long hollow needle at one end, inserted through the resealing port and catheter of the first chamber, and a squeeze bulb at the other end for urging a sample of blood through the needle into the flash chamber to signal that a blood vessel has been penetrated. To place the catheter in a blood vessel, the intravenous solution is connected to the tube port of the first chamber, the bulb is squeezed, then the needle carrying the catheter is pushed into the skin and the squeezed bulb released. Blood flashes into the flash chamber, urged by the vacuum created by the released squeeze bulb, as the needle enters a blood vessel. Then the catheter is pushed forward into the blood vessel as the flash chamber is held in place so that the needle backs in sequence through the chamber, the first chamber and the resealing port.

4943939, Jul 24, 1990

Aug 29, 1988

7/237730

Rocklin Hoover - Sumter SC

G06F 1520, G01N 1500, G06M 700, B65D 8310

364555

An apparatus for accounting for surgical instruments dispensed into and withdrawn from the surgical operating environment to avoid leaving instruments in the environment comprises a plurality of instrument bearing compartments mounted on a base, a stand for storing surgical instruments after use, and a digital computer programmed to receive signals both from the compartments as a sterile instrument is dispensed and from the stand when a used instrument is stored thereon, convert the signals to numbers of instruments dispensed and stored, subtract the latter number from the former and display the difference. A non-zero different means an instrument remains in the operating environment and must be visually accounted for by operating room staff. The signal from the compartments is preferably generated an interruption of beam of light carried by fiber optic filaments when an instrument is dispensed from a compartment. The signal from the stand is a pattern of transmitted light and dark areas created by instruments stored on the stand carried by an array of fiber optic filaments or digitized video imaging carried by a transmission yoke to the digital computer for digital image decoding.

5159921, Nov 3, 1992

Nov 27, 1990

7/618393

Rocklin L. Hoover - Sumter SC

A61B 1702

128 20

A surgical retractor for holding an incision in an open configuration comprising a compartment that has a flexible condition for placing the compartment into engagement with the tissue of the incision and a rigid condition for holding the tissue apart. The compartment contains elastically compressible beads and a fluid such as air and changes to the rigid condition by evacuating the air through the valve so that the wall of the compartment collapses to pack the beads together in a monolith of the desired shape. The compartment, which may be in the shape of an oval or an elongated tube, has a thickened portion oriented interior to the incision for preventing punctures, which carries optionally a light source such as a fiber optic bundle for illuminating the surgical area and also a suction source for evacuation of fluids, vapors, odors or smoke from the operative site.