A POLICE officer has received a commendation after helping to save a man’s life.

PC Liz Ferris was presented with a Chief Constable Commendation for her bravery and quick-thinking.

The officer was travelling home from a shift with Essex Police’s North Roads Policing Unit on June 30, 2020, when she spotted a motorcyclist who had been involved in a crash.

The rider had left the road in Tiptree and was unresponsive.

Liz contacted the police and ambulance control rooms to provide location details and then administered CPR for 15 minutes until a passing Patient Transport Service ambulance stopped.

She continued CPR and the casualty’s heart was successfully restarted using a defibrillator. The man was then taken to hospital by air ambulance.

A leading operations manager for the East of England Ambulance Service stated: “Without Police Constable Ferris’s presence and quick action, the patient would have been beyond help.”

PC Ferris said: “The motorcyclist was lying in the road. Members of the public had already removed his helmet and someone was ringing for an ambulance.

“I went over and I could see he was grey and not breathing. I began CPR and, while I was doing that, asked the person on the phone to ambulance control to come closer so I could speak to them and I then called for someone to phone our Force Control Room to ask one of my colleagues from Stanway Roads Policing Unit to bring a defibrillator.

“When the Patient Transport Service ambulance arrived, the driver brought over her defibrillator and took over CPR to give me a rest while I cut the man’s clothes to prepare him for the defibrillator.

“I was so grateful when she arrived, she was my knight in shining armour. Shortly afterwards, paramedics and the air ambulance arrived to take him to hospital.

“It is special to me to be recognised by the Chief Constable.”

Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said: “I ask Essex Police officers and staff to help people and keep them safe in times of need. I am proud of what these officers have done when faced with situations which most people won’t ever be faced with.”

“They have saved people’s lives and it is a privilege to be able to commend them for doing so.

“Officers will say they are just doing their jobs or that they were trained to do it but they have done extraordinary things and people are alive today because their instinct was to jump in and help. I am proud of them.”