01-29-2004, 05:14 PM
I've used these things before when I was an EMT/FF upstate but this has got to be one of the weirdest things I have ever heard.
Defibrillator sparks fire in Ambulance
New London — As a paramedic struggled to restart a dying woman's heart in the back of an ambulance Monday night, a defibrillator sparked a fire that ignited the patient's clothes and burned her face, according to police and fire officials and the woman's family.
The woman, Brenda Jewett, 47, was pronounced dead at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, police said. Neither the paramedic nor other ambulance crew members were injured by the flames, which were quickly doused with a fire extinguisher.
When the ambulance arrived at 227 Vauxhall St., Jewett was not breathing, her husband, Harrison Jewett, said. The state medical examiner was scheduled to perform an autopsy today to determine the exact cause of death.
The New London County State's Attorney's Office has initiated an investigation, asking the State Police Major Crime Squad, state and local fire marshals and the state Office of Emergency Medical Services to examine the fire.
Defibrillators –– devices that deliver electric shocks to a patient's bare chest to jumpstart stopped hearts –– have proliferated in recent years to combat cases of sudden cardiac arrest. The machines are found in schools, with police, in airports and other public places and have been seen as universally safe.
“I've been in this business 20 years and I've never heard of something like this,†said Leonard Guercia Jr., director of the state Emergency Medical Services. In fact, Mary Newman, executive director of the National Center for Early Defibrillation in Pittsburgh, said she has no record of a defibrillator ever sparking a fire.
Still, that's what happened Monday night.
“I'm concerned about it,†said New London Fire Marshal Calvin Darrow. “All the equipment –– the ambulance ... the defibrillator –– needs to be tested. I think it needs to be looked at to make sure it doesn't happen again.â€
On Monday night, Harrison Jewett, 52, noticed that his wife had stopped breathing. Brenda Jewett, who suffered from diabetes, had slumped over on the living room couch, her limbs limp. At 7:03 p.m. Harrison Jewett dialed 911, according to dispatch records.
At the time, the New London Fire Department was battling a two-alarm blaze on Steward Street and its ambulances were occupied. Dispatchers rerouted the call to the Cohanzie Fire Department in neighboring Waterford, which sent an ambulance and a fire truck.
Two or three minutes after his 911 call, Harrison Jewett said help arrived. Officials dispatched a second fire truck. Rescuers hurried to load Brenda Jewett into the back of an ambulance and sped toward the emergency room.
Harrison Jewett climbed into his car to follow the ambulance but got stuck in traffic behind the fire trucks, he said.
Inside the ambulance, a paramedic and two other crewmembers worked to save Brenda Jewett, Darrow said. As oxygen was pumped into her lungs, one of the rescuers reached for the defibrillator. The electric shock sparked a fire, Darrow said.
The ambulance stopped and crewmembers doused the blaze with an onboard fire extinguisher and tossed the highly flammable oxygen tank out the back of the ambulance, Darrow said.
Dr. Vincent Mosesso Jr., the National Center for Early Defibrillation's medical director, said that defibrillation can cause superficial skin burns that leave red marks on a patient's skin. He downplayed the role that oxygen could have played in sparking the fire, maintaining that thousands of defibrillations have been given to patients on oxygen.
However, Mosesso did say that if Brenda Jewett's skin was particularly wet and the pads that administer the shock were too close together, an electric current could potentially jump through the air and not into her chest. That, in turn, could ignite a fire.
“I think right now it is more of a freak incident and it shouldn't dissuade people from using them,†Mosesso said in a telephone interview. “It's a procedure that's done very frequently every day ... around the world.â€
There is no accurate accounting of the number of defibrillators in the country, but officials estimate that there were 40,000 in use four years ago and the number was projected to double every 18 months.
While the medical examiner will determine what killed Brenda Jewett, Mary Newman, of the National Center for Early Defibrillation, doubted that it was the fire or the defibrillator.
“When you defibrillate a person, they are already dead,†she said. “The purpose of the defibrillator is to bring them back to life. So you can't make them any worse off than they are.â€
Kelly Anthony, a spokesman for L&M, said federal privacy laws barred him from discussing specifics of Brenda Jewett's case. In a written statement, he expressed the hospital's condolences to the Jewett family and said: “The paramedic and ambulance crew did their jobs and did them well. They followed standard procedures and we're proud of their training and professionalism.â€
After battling traffic Monday night, Harrison Jewett said he finally arrived at L&M. He was told that nothing more could be done to save his wife.
“The emergency room doctor said that they had tried to revive her with a defibrillator and they burned her face,†he said, but there was no mention of a fire.
Harrison Jewett remembered his wife as a kindhearted woman who loved to quilt. Eyes red and weepy, he stood at his front door in a burgundy bathrobe Tuesday night. “I'm numb,†he said.
And no, people don't jump into the air when they get shocked, they twitch once or twice but I have yet to see a person fly into the air.
Defibrillator sparks fire in Ambulance
New London — As a paramedic struggled to restart a dying woman's heart in the back of an ambulance Monday night, a defibrillator sparked a fire that ignited the patient's clothes and burned her face, according to police and fire officials and the woman's family.
The woman, Brenda Jewett, 47, was pronounced dead at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, police said. Neither the paramedic nor other ambulance crew members were injured by the flames, which were quickly doused with a fire extinguisher.
When the ambulance arrived at 227 Vauxhall St., Jewett was not breathing, her husband, Harrison Jewett, said. The state medical examiner was scheduled to perform an autopsy today to determine the exact cause of death.
The New London County State's Attorney's Office has initiated an investigation, asking the State Police Major Crime Squad, state and local fire marshals and the state Office of Emergency Medical Services to examine the fire.
Defibrillators –– devices that deliver electric shocks to a patient's bare chest to jumpstart stopped hearts –– have proliferated in recent years to combat cases of sudden cardiac arrest. The machines are found in schools, with police, in airports and other public places and have been seen as universally safe.
“I've been in this business 20 years and I've never heard of something like this,†said Leonard Guercia Jr., director of the state Emergency Medical Services. In fact, Mary Newman, executive director of the National Center for Early Defibrillation in Pittsburgh, said she has no record of a defibrillator ever sparking a fire.
Still, that's what happened Monday night.
“I'm concerned about it,†said New London Fire Marshal Calvin Darrow. “All the equipment –– the ambulance ... the defibrillator –– needs to be tested. I think it needs to be looked at to make sure it doesn't happen again.â€
On Monday night, Harrison Jewett, 52, noticed that his wife had stopped breathing. Brenda Jewett, who suffered from diabetes, had slumped over on the living room couch, her limbs limp. At 7:03 p.m. Harrison Jewett dialed 911, according to dispatch records.
At the time, the New London Fire Department was battling a two-alarm blaze on Steward Street and its ambulances were occupied. Dispatchers rerouted the call to the Cohanzie Fire Department in neighboring Waterford, which sent an ambulance and a fire truck.
Two or three minutes after his 911 call, Harrison Jewett said help arrived. Officials dispatched a second fire truck. Rescuers hurried to load Brenda Jewett into the back of an ambulance and sped toward the emergency room.
Harrison Jewett climbed into his car to follow the ambulance but got stuck in traffic behind the fire trucks, he said.
Inside the ambulance, a paramedic and two other crewmembers worked to save Brenda Jewett, Darrow said. As oxygen was pumped into her lungs, one of the rescuers reached for the defibrillator. The electric shock sparked a fire, Darrow said.
The ambulance stopped and crewmembers doused the blaze with an onboard fire extinguisher and tossed the highly flammable oxygen tank out the back of the ambulance, Darrow said.
Dr. Vincent Mosesso Jr., the National Center for Early Defibrillation's medical director, said that defibrillation can cause superficial skin burns that leave red marks on a patient's skin. He downplayed the role that oxygen could have played in sparking the fire, maintaining that thousands of defibrillations have been given to patients on oxygen.
However, Mosesso did say that if Brenda Jewett's skin was particularly wet and the pads that administer the shock were too close together, an electric current could potentially jump through the air and not into her chest. That, in turn, could ignite a fire.
“I think right now it is more of a freak incident and it shouldn't dissuade people from using them,†Mosesso said in a telephone interview. “It's a procedure that's done very frequently every day ... around the world.â€
There is no accurate accounting of the number of defibrillators in the country, but officials estimate that there were 40,000 in use four years ago and the number was projected to double every 18 months.
While the medical examiner will determine what killed Brenda Jewett, Mary Newman, of the National Center for Early Defibrillation, doubted that it was the fire or the defibrillator.
“When you defibrillate a person, they are already dead,†she said. “The purpose of the defibrillator is to bring them back to life. So you can't make them any worse off than they are.â€
Kelly Anthony, a spokesman for L&M, said federal privacy laws barred him from discussing specifics of Brenda Jewett's case. In a written statement, he expressed the hospital's condolences to the Jewett family and said: “The paramedic and ambulance crew did their jobs and did them well. They followed standard procedures and we're proud of their training and professionalism.â€
After battling traffic Monday night, Harrison Jewett said he finally arrived at L&M. He was told that nothing more could be done to save his wife.
“The emergency room doctor said that they had tried to revive her with a defibrillator and they burned her face,†he said, but there was no mention of a fire.
Harrison Jewett remembered his wife as a kindhearted woman who loved to quilt. Eyes red and weepy, he stood at his front door in a burgundy bathrobe Tuesday night. “I'm numb,†he said.
And no, people don't jump into the air when they get shocked, they twitch once or twice but I have yet to see a person fly into the air.