Police officers have been praised for saving the life of a man who had collapsed in the middle of the road in Morden.


Merton PCs Knight and Dodson were called to Salcombe Drive last month after 59-year-old Ray Willoughby collapsed.


The officers rushed off to find Ray laying in the street and in cardiac arrest. 
The officers' training kicked in and they grabbed their new piece of equipment, the defibrillator, and began CPR. 
A shock was administered and during the final burst he awoke in a state of disorientation, but passed out again as the ambulance crew arrived. 


Getting him to hospital the London Ambulance Service said it was “one of the most complicated cardiac arrests that they had ever seen. The officers saved his life."


Mr Willoughby’s daughter praised everyone's efforts in saving her father.
"We were told by the paramedics who assisted, that police cars have only recently started carrying defibrillators," she said.


"Without this equipment, his life would not have been saved. I know it was the first time either police officer has had to use the defibrillator and under the circumstances they did an outstanding job.


"Without doing what they did, my dad wouldn't have got the chance to meet this granddaughter."
The officers visited Mr Willoughby the next day in hospital, before their shift. 
In a statement, PCs Knight and Dodson said: “We are over the moon that our new piece of equipment saved Ray’s life and enable him to spend Christmas with his family and meet his new granddaughter.

"We did what any member of the police family would have done.” 
Ray told officers who visited him the next day that one of the doctors mentioned to him “without the CPR that the officers did, he wouldn’t have made it."