Appeal No. 98-3360 Page 5
Application No. 08/556,099
The primary reference applied by the examiner is Mangum,
which also is directed to an apparatus for treating the lungs.
Mangum discloses a device in which a powered resuscitator
delivers a breathing mixture to the inlet of a T-shaped tube
whose bottom opening is exposed to a nebulizer reservoir and
whose outlet is connected to an endotracheal tube. Mangum also
teaches introducing a liquid medication into the system.
However, Mangum does so through an injection port in the wall
of the reservoir of the nebulizer (pages 4 and 1; Figure 11).
There is no element like or comparable to the Y-shaped tube
recited in the appellant’s claim 1 that is connected to the
system downstream of the outlet of the nebulizer, and which
provides the means for injecting a liquid medication at that
point. This deficiency is not cured by considering the
teachings of Watson, which was added for its showing of a
manual resuscitator.
Claim 3 recites the method of the invention. It requires
feeding a nebulized mist of bronchodilator into a stream of
oxygen, and injecting from the needle of a pre-filled syringe a
medicant in liquid form directly into the stream of oxygen and
nebulized mist of bronchodilator. Since Mangum teaches adding
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