Patient support

A patient support comprising:

• a mattress;
• a mattress cover;
• a pneumatic system;
• the mattress including a main patient support cushion with a pair of sealed sleeves on its opposed sides to form inflatable expansion bladders that are in fluid communication with the pneumatic system, which is configured to inflate or deflate one or both expansion bladders to increase or decrease a width of the mattress;
• and
• each sleeve being configured to extend from a first configuration where the sleeve is uninflated to a second configuration where the sleeve is filled with air and in an extended configuration to increase the width of the mattress, wherein one or both of the sleeves are no longer filled, the mattress cover is configured to automatically return toward an unexpanded configuration and to hold the deflated sleeve or sleeves in a stowed configuration within the mattress cover;
• and
• wherein the mattress includes at least one elongate member that extends under the main patient support cushion, wherein the at least one elongate member is attached at one end at a first side of the mattress cover and attached at another end at a second side of the mattress cover opposite the first side, and
• wherein the at least one elongate member is coupled to the mattress cover to apply a biasing force to pull the first and second sides of the mattress cover inward from the expanded configuration toward the unexpanded configuration when the sleeve or sleeves are deflated in the stowed configuration, thereby biasing the first and second sides of the mattress cover automatically toward each other to pull the cover inward underneath the main patient support cushion to prevent formation of excess material simultaneously at both the first and second sides of the mattress cover.

A patient support comprises:

• a mattress;
• a mattress cover;
• a pneumatic system;
• the mattress including a main patient support cushion and inner and outer sealed sleeves at each side of the main patient support cushion, each sleeve being in fluid communication with the pneumatic system;
• the pneumatic system being configured to inflate or deflate the outer sealed sleeves to form expansion bladders together or independently to increase a width of the mattress by one inflated expansion bladder or two inflated expansion bladders or decrease the width by deflating one or both expansion bladders;
• and
• the mattress cover being configured to expand from an unexpanded configuration to an expanded configuration to accommodate the increased widths of the mattress, and the mattress further including at least one elastic member that extends under the main patient support cushion, wherein the at least one elastic member is attached at one end at a first side of the mattress cover and attached at another end at a second side of the mattress cover opposite the first side,
• wherein the at least one elastic member is coupled to the mattress cover to apply a biasing force to pull the mattress cover inward toward the inner sleeves when one or both expansion bladders are deflated, thereby biasing the first and second sides of the mattress cover automatically toward each other to pull the cover inward underneath the main patient support cushion to prevent formation of excess material simultaneously at both the first and second sides of the mattress cover.