Raising chair

A raising chair comprising

• a support frame (11);
• a seat structure (27);
• seat pivot means (63) pivotally connecting said support frame (11) and said seat structure (22) to pivot between a substantially horizontal attitude for supporting a patient in a seated position and a substantially vertical attitude upon raising the patient to a substantially erect position,
• said seat pivot means (63) being located below the seating plane of said seat surface structure (27) and in the vicinity of the front edge of said seating plane of said seat surface structure (27) and offset rearwardly from the front edge of said surface structure (27);
• a foot rest (45);
• foot rest pivot means (46) pivotally connecting said seat surface structure (27) and said foot rest (45);
• a seat back rest (32);
• back rest pivot means (41) connecting said seat surface structure (27) and said back rest (32),
• said back rest pivot means (41) being located above the seating plane of said seat surface structure (27) when the chair is in sitting position;
• and a mechanism (61, 64, 63, 29) to rotate the seat surface structure (27) between substantially horizontal and vertical positions in which said seat is, respectively, in substantially horizontal and vertical attitude;
• the pivot axes of said seat pivot means (63) and of the backrest pivot means (41) being spaced from the front and plane of the seat surface structure (27) to position the respective pivot means relative to the hip and knee joints (43, 44) of a patient supported by the seat surface structure of the raising chair when in sitting position to cause substantially no relative motion between the seat surface structure (27) and the back rest (32), and the patient when said mechanism to rotate said seat surface structure is actuated to raise the chair and patient to erected position.