A housewife died of an asthma attack as ambulancemen, working with incomplete information, took 1.5 hours to find her home, an inquest heard yesterday.
Senior officer Leung Sui-tong, one of the team to be called to Lo Pui-ling's Yuen Long home, told the Coroner's Court he knocked on her door during a random search based on an address without a flat number.
She was unable to answer the door, probably because she had already collapsed, Coroner Paul Kelly said.
Lo, 38, an asthma sufferer since 1993, called police at 2.48pm on October 29 last year after suffering an attack while alone at home. She asked them to get and an ambulance for her. She gave police her phone number and address stating the floor, the block and the name of the complex where she lived, but had omitted the flat number - 1203.
Mr Leung and his crew members arrived at the building six minutes later.
He contacted the emergency service operators, which reconfirmed the incomplete address but gave no personal details about Lo - not her name or even the fact that she was a woman.