OUR HISTORY

I have been asked by many people how the idea of the Wedge Cup came into being.

Here’s my story:

My brother, Roy Bergeron was born on January 7, 1948. Roy had Spinal Meningitis at five months old and was left severely handicapped, mentally and physically. He lived at home with our family for quite a few years until he was institutionalized at approximately the age of ten. Roy lived in various state schools until the age of forty when he became a resident of Thibodaux State School, now known as Bayou Region Support and Services Center. Roy later moved into one of Bayou Regions group homes located in Labadieville where he remained until his death. Roy is the reason I invented the Wedge Cup.

At the death of both our parents I became responsible for Roy. I attended numerous meetings over the years about his welfare including a swallow study meeting about eleven years ago. Roy was having trouble drinking liquids especially his beloved coffee and I was told that finding a cup that worked well for him was not an easy task. The therapists recommended that his cup always be filled above halfway to eliminate him having to tilt his head back to get “every drop”. I also learned that when tilting the head back sometimes allows for a tiny amount of liquid to enter the lungs which could possibly cause pneumonia. This condition is called Dysphagia. When I suggested they get him a cup with a wedge in it, the speech pathologist said there were non available on the market and that I should go home and make one. This is just what I did. And this is where the Wedge Cup, my cup for my brother, a cup for Dysphagia, came into being.

I made a prototype of what I had in mind and patented my invention and approached Tulane University’s Biochemical Engineering Department with my cup to perform a peer study. For her thesis, graduate student Alyssa Alta performed a comparative test with seven other containers, including several commonly used for Dysphagia. The tilt/flow study results found that compared to other cups, the Wedge cup completely emptied at a small series of tilt angles. She also found that its average volume per angle was greater than all of the other dysphagia cups on the market. The Wedge Cup finished dispensing all of its contents sooner than all of the other cups tested.

While attending a Speech and Language conference for the Veterans Association in Tucson, Arizona, therapists suggested that they would like some type of locking device to keep patients from moving the adjustable flow control. From that request, we created a lock under the lid and is now standard on all Wedge Cups.

Unfortunately the person the cup was invented for is no longer living. Roy passed away at the age of 61 in July, 2009. I know that there is a great need for the Wedge Cup by the handicapped and physically impaired community. I invented this cup to help people and hope that, in Roy’s name, it will do just that.

–Bryan Bergeron, Inventor of the Wedge Cup

Wedge Cup is manufactured in the United States