An ambulance driver who took more than eight minutes to find a house around the corner from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where a man was suffocating to death told an inquest yesterday: "I done the best I could at the time."

Emergency medical technician Aleston Armstrong told a hearing into Norman Palmer's death at Magistrates' Court that he had no idea where Leafy Way, Paget, was when he received a call on April 12 last year about a 57-year-old man with breathing difficulty.

Mr. Palmer died soon after arriving at the Emergency Room at KEMH after what his wife Kathleen described as a "fiasco" in getting him there.

Many of his body parts were found to be missing by a British pathologist after his corpse was flown to the UK for cremation.

Mr. Armstrong told Coroner Khamisi Tokunbo he relied on the 911 operator to direct him to the lane, which is just a couple of streets away from the hospital, as that was faster than looking at a map.

Jeffrey Elkinson, lawyer for Mr. Palmer's family, asked Mr. Armstrong if eight minutes and 12 seconds – the time from 911 receiving the call to the patient's wife running outside to get the ambulance's attention – seemed a long time for such a short distance. "It does seem like a long time," he replied.

The hearing later heard in evidence from fellow emergency medical technician (EMT) Rickeisha Burgess that after Mr. Palmer was put on the ambulance and it got out of the lane, she gave the hospital an estimated time of arrival of 30 seconds.

Mr. Armstrong explained he had to reverse into Leafy Way after missing the turn off Tee Street. He sounded his siren just once, after stopping outside what turned out to be the wrong house.

"Neighbours had signed a petition asking us that they would not like us to use the siren along that road," he said.

After Mrs. Palmer saw the ambulance and directed it to her home, Ms Burgess followed her in and Mr. Armstrong initially remained outside.

Mr. Elkinson told him: "The evidence that we have heard is that you were not in a rush, you personally, outside of the ambulance. Would that be fair?"

Mr. Armstrong, from St. David's, replied: "No."

The lawyer told him two witnesses had "severely" criticised his driving, with the first unable to understand why he reversed up and down a lane which large vehicles were able to drive into. "Do you think, on reflection, maybe you could have done it quicker?" asked Mr. Elkinson.

"I done the best I could at the time," replied Mr. Armstrong.

Mr. Tokunbo asked if he had a sense of urgency the whole time. "Yes," he replied.

Mr. Armstrong and Ms Burgess said Mr. Palmer's wife and sister got in the way of getting the stretcher out of the house and onto the ambulance, with it jamming in a doorway at one point. "They may have felt that they were trying to help," Mr. Armstrong said.

He added that further delay was caused by a car and telephone pole blocking his exit from the driveway, and another car driving up behind the ambulance as it was leaving.

Ms Burgess, of Pembroke, told the inquest the ambulance left KEMH at 4.47 p.m. and returned at 5.07 p.m. She explained the delay was caused by the lane being "too tight" and trees and cars that were in the way. "We are not going to purposefully take long," she said. She added that once they were out of Leafy Way it took less than a minute to return to base.

Ms Burgess told the hearing that Mr. Palmer, an asthmatic with a 40-year-old gunshot injury to his neck, was still breathing and trying to talk when he was taken into the resuscitation room. "He was saying, 'Help me'," she said.

Mr. Elkinson asked why he wasn't put in the ambulance straight away. "Our job is to treat and transfer," said Ms Burgess. "Why would we want to wait for the long process of getting them on the truck?"

Mr. Elkinson asked if she agreed that when a patient was turning blue "every second counts". Ms Burgess said yes but added: "Sometimes it's treatable."