Infant warmer-incubator

Claim 1

An incubator for providing a controlled environment of a predetermined temperature and humidity to an infant while permitting ready access to the infant for routine nursing care and technical procedures without removing the infant or working through portholes, said incubator comprising: a generally rectangular base having a bottom wall, side and end walls with an open upper side, a generally rectangular hood having an open end positioned over said open upper side of said base and comprising four walls which are hinged along their lower edges and, in their normal position, are inclined to converge upwardly from said base, said four walls have an extent less than required to meet along their upper edges to define an aperture above said base smaller than said open upper side of said base but large enough to permit some nursing care to be carried out therethrough, bed means forming a porous nonabsorbent support for an infant, means for supporting said bed means and said hood to dispose said bed means and the lower edges of said four walls substantially in a common plane, plenum means communicating with said base for directing warm, humidified fluid into the incubator below said bed means, and environmental control means for introducing warm, humidified gases into said plenum means at a pressure above atmospheric pressure sufficient to maintain flow of fluid upward through the incubator and out said aperture, said environmental control means comprising, vaporizer means including a water vaporization chamber and heating means disposed in said chamber for producing a supply of steam, valve means for admitting fluid into said vaporizer means, and blower means for mixing said fluid and said steam and directing said mixture into said plenum means and said base at said pressure above atmospheric pressure whereby said mixture passes through said bed means and said inclined walls of said hood serve to maintain said mixture about a said infant on said bed means.