Conflicting stories and major disagreements about the facts have emerged at the inquest into the death of Erith man Andrew Jordan. LINDA PIPER reports ...

A PARAMEDIC who drove the ambulance which took Andrew Jordan to hospital and helped give emergency treatment, has admitted he may have made several wrong decisions. Mark Robertson was giving evidence at Erith Town Hall on the ninth day of the inquest into Mr Jordan's death.

Mr Robertson said while Mr Jordan was still in the house with police, he had asked Oxleas mental health official Dr Swandurai Somasegaram about Mr Jordan's condition and was told he was fine.

But when Mr Jordan was carried from the house and put on a canvas stretcher, he said he was not alert or speaking.

Under cross-examination by Jordan family counsel Leslie Thomas, Mr Robertson conceded it had been an omission not to ask one of the doctors at the scene to examine Mr Jordan.

He said after Mr Jordan was put in the ambulance on his stomach, with his hands cuffed behind his back and his head on one side facing the ambulance wall, he noticed Mr Jordan's legs, strapped down on the trolley, were shaking.

In a statement he said his colleague had given Mr Jordan oxygen, but in evidence, accepted it might not have happened.

Mr Robertson said if Mr Jordan had been having a fit, oxygen should have been the correct treatment.

He agreed it might have saved Mr Jordan's life if he had been given oxygen earlier.

The paramedic described how, after breathing normally, Mr Jordan began breathing at twice the normal rate.

He said he had checked Mr Jordan for any head injury and found a small mark above one eye.

He conceded he may not have checked the other side of his head, where there were further injuries.

He said in retrospect, he had been wrong to drive the ambulance himself, as he was better medically qualified than his colleague.

He conceded he should have remained in the back of the ambulance with Mr Jordan.

Mr Robertson agreed he had been apprehensive about attending the situation because he had been assaulted in the past. He said he had never seen a patient collapse so quickly before.

He said he and his colleague began resuscitating Mr Jordan at 1.43pm but Mr Jordan had never shown any further sign of life.

Earlier, his colleague Daniel Gaze, a medical emergency technician, had admitted referring to Mr Jordan as "a nutter" when he took the call to attend the mental health assessment.

He agreed he had said he and his colleague were "going to get absolutely slaughtered" but "at least he would get a service funeral".

He admitted this had been "unprofessional" but said it had not affected the way he had treated Mr Jordan.

He said as soon as Mr Jordan had been put into the ambulance, he and Mr Robertson had carried out checks on his condition, putting on a finger monitor at 1.21pm to check pulse and blood oxygen levels and doing a blood-sugar level to check Mr Jordan's diabetes.

Mr Gaze checked Mr Jordan's reactions but could not get any speech from him.

He said three police officers who travelled in the ambulance, asked if they should remove Mr Jordan's handcuffs and he agreed.

He said it was unusual for a patient to travel face down.

He heard Sergeant Simon Young, the supervising police officers, tell the three PCs to watch Mr Jordan's airway during the journey.

Mr Gaze said he had not seen Mr Jordan shaking and had decided he was hyperventilating when he heard him panting but he decided to monitor him instead of giving oxygen.

He said because the journey was so fast, the finger monitor kept coming off and he asked Mr Robertson to stop the ambulance so he could check Mr Jordan with a stethoscope.

He said Mr Jordan's response levels had dropped but he was still breathing.

The ambulance set off again but was asked to stop a second time because Mr Jordan was cold and his pulse rate had disappeared from the monitor.

At the same time, a police officer said Mr Jordan's lips had turned purple.

Mr Gaze denied it had been the police officers who kept pointing out Mr Jordan's deteriorating condition.

He said he did not know when he had first given Mr Jordan any oxygen.

Both ambulancemen began working on Mr Jordan, giving drugs and with the help of a PC, doing chest compressions while Sgt Young, who had been following behind in a police car, drove the ambulance to hospital.

Mr Gaze and Mr Robertson both denied any conversation with Sgt Young in which the policeman talked about his concerns of positional asphyxiation which can happen when a heavy person is laid face down for any period, which restricts their breathing.

They denied Sgt Young had said he wanted the handcuffs removed and he would be happier with Mr Jordan laid on his side.

Both said they had never heard of positional asphyxia and would have asked Sgt Young about it if he had mentioned it.

They said ambulance crews have not had any training about the condition.