Jan 28, 2004 10:52 am US/Eastern
(1010 WINS) (New London, Conn.) A paramedic using a defibrillator in
an attempt to restart the heart of a New London woman, instead set
her on fire, police said.

A spark from the machine ignited the clothes of 47-year-old Brenda
Jewett inside an ambulance Monday night, police said.

Jewett was pronounced dead at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital. Neither
the paramedic nor other members of the ambulance crew were injured
by
the flames, which were doused with a fire extinguisher.

Jewett's husband had called for the ambulance after finding his wife
unconscious on their couch Monday evening.

The cause of Jewett's death is expected to be determined by an
autopsy Wednesday.

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.

"I've been in this business 20 years and I've never heard of
something like this," Leonard Guercia Jr., director of the state
Emergency Medical Services, told The Day of New London.

Mary Newman, of the National Center for Early Defibrillation in
Pittsburgh, said her group has never received a report of a
defibrillator starting a fire. She said she doubted that it was the
fire or the defibrillator that caused Jewett's death.

"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."