MILITARY PHARMACY AND MEDICINE

© Military Pharmacy and Medicine • 2012 • 4 • 124 – 126able equip the person in water with a device thatwould allow them to manage the drowning hazardby themselves, without the dramatic wait forrescue. To date, the only device of this type is thelife jacket, which restricts the movements and theease of swimming, and which is used mostly bypeople working on ships and fishing boats.The search for novelwater rescue devicesFor many years, various personal rescue devices,oftentimes automatically-triggered devicesthat could be worn by every individual stayingin open reservoirs, have been proposed. Manydevices of these type are known from Polishpatent descriptions nos. 52602, 105721, 59710,105722 and 70297Jerzy Mierzejewski: Anti-drown ring – a patented drowning protection …following complete immersion of the drowningperson under increased hydrostatic pressure thatruptures the foil surrounding a bag that is thentransformed into a life buoy.Title page of patent no. 197623 regarding theinvention titled DROWNING PROTECTIONDEVICE, as discussed in the article.Anti-drown ring design summaryWhen not activated, the anti-drown ring in questionis a thin ring made of elastic rubber tubingfreely placed around the neck and not restrictingHowever, the mechanisms to trigger thesedevices are complex and usually respond onlyFigure 2:Figure 1: Title page of patent no. 197623 regarding theinvention titled DROWNING PROTECTION DEVICE, asdiscussed in the article.124 http://military.isl-journals.comFigure 3: Figures 2-3 present the circular cross-section of nonactivatedsystem.The numbered arrows indicate as follows:1 – cross-section of the walls of the anti-drown ring;2 – tubing lumen filled with acidic reagent;3 – cross-section of ribbon with indicated bends;4 – ribbon bend inside the container filled with alkaline reagent;5 – alkaline reagent container wall;6 – alkaline reagent placed in the container with ribbon bend;7,8 – free ribbon bends in acidic reagent environment.