The assistive lifts (both manual and motorized), in terms of the patient-mobility, are of two kinds, viz., stationary and mobile. A stationary lift is the one that is secured to a wall or ceiling wherein, as one can expect, the mobility thereof is rendered very limited whereby, the area covered by such lifts for moving a patient is accordingly very limited. Also, on the flipside, stationary lifts have high initial setup costs and are bulky.
The mobile lifts, although on the other hand, can be maneuvered and thereby cover a small patient-transfer area (such as, from bed to wheelchair and vice versa), most of them handle the patient from above, which likely leads to accidents resulting from tipping-overs, slippage of patients, etc. The mobile lifts known in the art have U or H-shaped bases, which ride on a plurality of small swivel caster wheels. The U or H-shaped bases interfere with getting closer to the center of gravity of the patients sometimes leading to instability in holding the patient. Further, the smaller caster wheels pose a problem in that they tend to be sensitive to coarse surfaces, such as over a carpeted flooring, etc.
Further, if the patient is lying down, the bases have boundary limitations with regard to the center of gravity. Therefore, in order to make up for this limitation, the lifts employ long and extended lifting arms. Consequently, to support the lengthy arms, the lifts employ longer bases along with heavy and large columns so as to reach the patient's center of gravity in order to properly lift them up in accordance with the patients' ever changing postures and positions. Even though they are on wheels, the relatively large-sized bodies of the lifts lead to limited and difficult maneuverability such as, for example, negatively affecting movement on different flooring like carpeted flooring or passing through doors for moving from one room to another or into a bathroom. Each patient transfer requires much energy to be expended because, in addition to the weight of the patient, the weight of the lifting arms must also be factored in.
However, in order to reduce the weight and size of the lifts, smaller lifts exist in the art, but can only be used for patients who have some abilities themselves. These lifts under no circumstances can be used for patients having severe problems such as, for example, Spastic Cerebral Palsy, etc. Even though some of these smaller lifters advertise that they can be used for a patient who is lying down, someone must position the lift to pass under their legs. This is a cumbersome process and may cause potential harm to the patient due to changes that occur in the position of their lifting member with respect to the patient during lifting.
In the light of the aforementioned, there is a need in the art for a compact and light mobile assistive lift that covers a large patient-transfer area with ease. Such lift should incorporate multiple functions and features thus reducing the need for numerous assistive devices. Such lift should easily be assembled and disassembled without the need for tools.