Importance

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Abstract

A mouth-to-mouth barrier for facilitating mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a heart attack or accident victim or the like while protecting a rescuer, includes a transparent shield and a breathing tube extending through an opening in the shield. Within the tube, an air passage is defined by a generally cylindrical inner wall. The inner wall forms an upper cylinder of a first diameter and then the inner wall then tapers outward toward an outer wall to form a lower cylinder of a second diameter which is larger in diameter than the upper cylinder. A retaining ring is snapped into place within the lower cylinder which ring serves as a keeper to hold a generally conical valve member in place within the lower cylinder. The valve member is thus movable between a rest, open position atop the ring and a closed position in which it abuts the tapered portion of the inner wall. A cross-shaped portion of the valve member, along with a cross grid formed in the retaining ring allow a large volume of air to flow through the barrier when the valve is open, yet acts as a very fast acting one-way check valve which is positioned a maximum distance from the rescuer's mouth and which prevents a victim from exhaling into the rescuer's mouth.

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First Claim