By ANEEKA SIMONIS
WHEN Pakenham’s Ryan Morley went to work on Thursday 11 September, he didn’t expect to save a life.
But that’s exactly what he did when he found local man Harold Jolley, 71, face down and unconscious metres away from his work site in Garfield.
“I was working on the street resurfacing a footpath in Garfield when I saw a man face down in the dirt.
“I checked his pulse and saw he wasn’t breathing,” he said.
Mr Morley ran to the Garfield man’s aid, giving him life-saving CPR for around 45 minutes as local paramedics, who arrived around 20 minutes after the call, worked to separately stabilise the man.
“He was pretty much blue-faced, blue-lipped … I didn’t think I was going to be able to resuscitate him,” Mr Morley who works for local company, Hydradig, said.
Another man, Nick Lockwood, also gave the man mouth-to-mouth before the paramedics arrived.
The first paramedic on scene, Jo Algie from the Pakenham Ambulance Station said Mr Morley was a hero.
“He did some brilliant CPR. It’s literally what saved him,” she said.
Paramedics transported Mr Jolley to the Monash Hospital in Clayton for urgent cardiac treatment.
He was fitted with a temporary pacemaker after he suffered another heart failure that evening in hospital.
Mr Jolley’s wife, Sandra said her husband was now out of hospital but was not fully recovered.
“He’s not 100 per cent. It was his first cardiac arrest … he was completely fit and healthy,” she said.
“He doesn’t drink, smoke and he’s fit … it was a shock to us all.”
Mrs Jolley said she would be forever thankful for Mr Morley’s help.
“I can’t thank him enough. He has done a wonderful job … without him, he wouldn’t be here,”she said.
Mr Jolley, who now has a permanent pacemaker, had been mowing his neighbour’s lawn before he launched into the cardiac arrest.
