Body protective garment

Claim 1

A body protective garment adapted for covering a hip region of a wearer to protect the wearer against femoral fracture resulting from a sudden impact, said body protective garment comprising: (a) an elastic girdle including a waist opening and a pair of leg openings, first and second zippers located in a front of said girdle and extending longitudinally generally from the waist opening to respective leg openings for fastening and unfastening said girdle from around the hip region of the wearer, and first and second protective flaps for covering the ends of respective zippers when zipped; (b) a plurality of pad-receiving pockets attached to the girdle and adapted for overlying the bip region on opposing anterior sides and a rear thereof; (c) a plurality of removable body protective pads carried in respective pockets, each of said pads comprising a multi-layer foam composite capable of reducing a 5800 N impact force to less than 1200 N, said foam composite comprising: (i) inside and outside foam layers each having a density of between 200-500 kg/m 3 ; (ii) a middle foam layer located between the inside and outside foam layers and having a density of between 80-100 kg/m 3 , the middle layer being at least twice as thick as either of the inside or outside layers; (iii) said foam composite defining a plurality of perforations extending through said layers from one side of the pad to the other to reduce the overall weight of the pad and to promote moisture evaporation through the pad; and (d) a fire-resistant outer fabric cover surrounding the layers of each of said body protective pads.