MODESTO, Calif., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Andrew Toti, inventor of the EndoFlex endotracheal tube and hundreds of internationally-acclaimed products, has died of natural causes at his home in Modesto, CA. He was 89.
The EndoFlex endotracheal tube with an adjustable distal tip, which Toti developed along with Dr. Michael Wong, an anesthesiologist, and Jay Kotin, president of Merlyn Associates, is revolutionizing the way anesthesia is administered in surgeries worldwide. At the time of his death, Toti had just completed collaboration with Wong and Kotin on a number of additional airway management devices, which Merlyn Associates plans to introduce later this year.
Andrew Toti's best-known invention, the Mae West live preserver vest, came into being because his mother worried that her 14 year old son may drown while operating his souped-up powerboat. In 1936, when he was only 16, the War Department paid Toti $1600 for rights to the vest, which wearers nicknamed the Mae West for the buxom movie star whom it made them resemble when inflated. The life vest was credited for saving thousands of lives during WWII and versions of it are still widely used today.
At the time of his death, Toti held more than 500 patents. A few more of his best-known inventions include vertical blinds; a harvesting machine used at orchards and vineyards worldwide; the pop-top can; an automated fowl defeatherer, which revolutionized the poultry industry; cordless method for raising and lowering shades; and lightweight construction beams that are saving millions of man-hours and dollars around the world.
For more information, please contact Nancy Hoover, Hoover & Associates, 619 988 6978, or nhoover@usa.net.
Merlyn AssociatesCONTACT: Nancy Hoover of Hoover & Associates, +1-619-988-6978,nhoover@usa.net, for Merlyn Associates