Aspirating/ventilating apparatus and method

A ventilating and aspirating assembly for use in the evacuation of fluid from a patient comprising:

• an aspirating catheter tube initially internally disposed within a surrounding flexible collapsible envelope, the catheter tube comprising a proximal end and a distal end;
• a connector through which ventilating air is involuntarily delivered and exhausted from the lungs of said patient, said connector comprising structure for accommodating the manual insertion and removal of the distal end of the catheter tube into the trachea/bronchi of said patient to facilitate aspirating of undesired respiratory fluids;
• and
• a medical non-contaminating normally closed valve assembly carried at the distal end of the catheter tube and adapted for use in selectively delivering aspirating vacuum pressure to a desired site, the valve assembly functioning to isolate said aspirating vacuum pressure from the atmosphere, said normally closed valve assembly comprising a valve body having a bore therethrough, a plunger, and a single piece sealing element disposed so as to be actuated by the plunger, the single piece sealing element comprising (a) self-biasing memory for urging the single element from an open stressed position to a closed position of lesser stress and (b) structure for sealing the single element against the valve body in a normally closed position so that the bore is sealed but accommodating manual displacement of the single element by the plunger counter to the self-biasing of the memory of the single element, into the open position.