ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,336,944, issued on June 24, was assigned to Stryker Corp. (Portage, Mich.).
"Patient support apparatus having an extension" was invented by Connor F St. John (Kalamazoo, Mich.), Christopher Gentile (Sturgis, Mich.), Michael T. Brubaker (Portage, Mich.) and Kevin C. Kropp (Gobles, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A patient support apparatus having a support structure with a primary support surface for a patient, and an extension manually movable by a user relative to the support structure from a stowed position to an extended position so that the extension provides auxiliary support for the patient in the extended position. A locking ...