History of our Company
In 1975 a young Occupational therapist was working with patients who had rheumatoid arthritis. Many of these people were suffering from swan neck deformity of the P.I.P joint of the hand, a debilitating deformity that locks that joint into hyperextension, preventing free flexion of that joint and consequently limiting hand grip. Using drawings of a splint to limit hyperextension of the P.I.P. joint that she procured at the University of Washington Hospital of Seattle, Washington during her Occupational Therapy internship, she set out to make splints which would help her patients. No commercial splints were available at that time and therapists made ALL of their patients' splints. Experimentation was the name of the game and splints were made from plastic pipe, aluminum tubing, and thermoplastic; none of these materials was very satisfactory for construction of the splint.
After procuring a patent on June 2, 1981 for a splint made of one continuous piece of material, the therapist named her product The Murphy® Ring Splint (Her last name was Murphy) and began to construct them out of high quality stainless steel wire. This material was satisfactory and met all of the criteria for this successful splint: easy production of multiple sizes, adjustability, durability, and low production cost to be passed on to the patient. Several years later, she added hand made sterling silver Murphy® Ring Splints to the line. Splints are still made today in the same traditional way from those two materials, and the same therapist still oversees the production of each splint.
We are proud to have supplied our patients with quality splints for 43 years.
We hope you like our splints and that they help you to lead a more productive life. That is our goal!
- The crew at Mustard Seed Therapeutic Products, Inc.* Manufacturers of the Murphy® Ring Splint.
*Matthew 17:20, Holy Bible:"If you have faith as small as a Mustard Seed, nothing will be impossible for you."
The founding and growth of our business seemed impossible, but we had faith to do it with God's help,
and by God's grace we did achieve it!