When was the gurney invented?

Answer 1

The name gurney comes from its similarity to a horse-drawn cab patented in the U.S. in 1883 by J. Theodore Gurney. A gurney, (known as a trolley in British medical context) is the U.S. term for a type of stretcher used in modern hospitals and ambulances in developed areas. A hospital gurney is a kind of narrow bed on a wheeled frame which may be adjustable in height. For ambulances, a collapsible gurney is a type of stretcher on a variable-height wheeled frame. Normally, an integral lug on the gurney locks into a sprung latch within the ambulance in order to prevent movement during transport. As you can see - there are quite a few variations on the gurney, so the question needs to be made more specific. In general though - the first gurney was probably just a bed on wheels with many modifications made incrementally over the years. It may also be noted that a plausible argument might be made that a simple wheelbarrow was a forerunner of the modern gurney in that they were used in the middle ages to transport dead bodies during the plague and could be used to transport a sick person just as easily. That said - unless you want to specify a particular model of gurney, the question cannot be answered definitively.