Recovery Wear

Abstract

A garment that can be used to enhance the safety of injured or convalescing people. The garment includes indicia which indicates that a person is either injured or convalescing. The indicia is positioned on the garment so as to overlay the affected or injured area of the user's body. In one aspect of the invention, garments are given to outpatients as they are discharged from the hospital. These garments have indicia positioned at the site of the persons' injury or surgery.

Claims

1. A method of protecting a convalescing person comprising the steps of: identifying an injured area on the person; providing a garment to cover the injured area; positioning an alerting message on the garment where the positioning of the message corresponds to the injured area.

2. The method of claim 1 where said garment has a number of substrate receiving areas thereon.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said substrate receiving areas receive a substrate with said alerting message positioned thereon.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] FIG. 1 shows a plan view of a garment modified in accordance with the inventive concept.

[0012] FIGS. 2-5 show the inventive garment illustrating the various positions and orientations of the warning indicia.

[0013] FIG. 6 shows a removable decal which can be positioned on the garments shown in FIGS. 1-5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] The present invention is directed to a garment, and a method of using such a garment. The garment is useful to safeguard injured persons, outpatients, and other convalescing individuals. The purpose of the garment is to advise or alert others who come within the proximity of the wearer that the person is injured or recovering so as to avoid further injury which might occur if the injured person is jostled or bumped. The garment could be especially useful if the wearer becomes unconscious and is therefore unable to communicate the injury to others. This situation could arise should the person be in an accident, the garment serving to advise emergency personnel that the wearer is injured.

[0015] Referring now to FIGS. 1-5, representative garments employing the inventive technique are shown. In the examples shown, the garments are a t-shirt and a pair of pants, but any garment can be used to practice the invention, provided the garment covers the injured area.

[0016] As can be seen in FIG. 1, a T-shirt 10 with indicia 12 thereon is shown. The indicia 12 can be any word, symbol, or combination of words and symbols which can indicate that a person is injured. The indicia 12 provides an alert to persons in close proximity to the wearer. It can be appreciated that the invention has particular utility for wearers with communication issues or mentally challenged. In the examples shown the indicia 12 is the word “INJURED” which covers a major portion of the front of the T-shirt to be visible from a long distance. Bright and contrasting colors are preferably used to draw attention to the fact that the indicia 12 is not mere ornamentation. The indicia 12 could be printed onto the shirt using any known technique for printing onto cloth. Alternatively, the garment 10 may come with a removable decal with the indicia 12 pre-printed thereon so that the wearer can use the garment 10 after convalescing without the indicia 12.

[0017] FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate how the indicia 12 may be positioned to precisely identify a smaller injured area. The indicia 12 is much smaller in relation to the size of the garment 10 and is positioned directly over the affected area, as opposed to the more general positioning shown in FIG. 1. This garment 10 has particular utility in an indoor setting, as the wearer will be in close enough proximity to others that they can perceive the alerting indicia 12.

[0018] FIGS. 4 and 5 show a pair of pants 22 with indicia 12 positioned thereon. The indicia 12 can of course be positioned on the right or left leg, back or front panel of the pants. As with the garment 10 of FIG. 1, smaller indicia 12 can be used especially for indoor settings.

[0019] Alternatively to printing the indicia 12, a decal or other substrate 24 may be used. The decal 24, as shown in FIG. 6 may be of the peel and stick variety and may be sized and positioned as described above. Also, garments 10, 22 may have areas 26 specially prepared for receiving a substrate 24 having, e.g., hook or loop material positioned thereon, with indicia 12 on the opposing side. Thus, each garment 10, 22 would have multiple substrate receiving areas.

[0020] One possible use of the indicia 12 is as a “discharge garment” for patients leaving the hospital, the garment clearly indicating to e.g., an orderly, where the person is injured. Again, in the case of a non-communicative patient, the garment can alert others which may help prevent further injury. The garment 10, 22 could also be used to identify (before surgery) a part of the body requiring surgery.

[0021] It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the sole embodiment described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims: