Surgical table

A bed having a base, a pedestal mounted on the base and a patient supporting member mounted on the pedestal. The pedestal is generally centrally oriented relative to the base and to the patient supporting member and includes a mechanism for effecting an elevating of the patient supporting member relative to the base. A stabilizing mechanism is provided for enabling the pedestal to accommodate differing elevations between the base and the patient supporting member and yet facilitate a maintaining of longitudinal axis congruency between the relatively movable components of the pedestal so that an orientation of the patient supporting member will remain relatively fixed with respect to the base independent of a height of the patient supporting member relative to the base. In addition, the stabilized patient supporting member of the bed has a fowler section wherein the lower region thereof is supported for movement toward the head end of the patient supporting member as the fowler section is elevated from a horizontally aligned position to other positions oriented at an obtuse angle with respect to the remainder portion of the patient supporting member.