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BLADEN COUNTY, N.C. — Three Bladen County inmates are being hailed as heroes after getting help for a supervisor who suddenly fell ill.

On Wednesday, Roadside Supervisor James Smith was working with three inmates on Peanut Road in Elizabethtown when he suffered a stroke, WECT reports.

Inmates Roy William Smith, Rosendo Morales-Sanchez and Franklin Edens Jr. had been picking up trash in exchange for reduced jail time as part of a program for those jailed for minor crimes.

When Smith passed out, the three stood by him and stopped traffic to get the man help.

Eden said he used the supervisor’s cell phone to call 911.

“If that was my father laying beside the road, I would want somebody to help him instead of running off,” said Roy Smith, according to WECT.

“We would like for our citizens to please keep Mr. Smith in your prayers for a speedy recovery,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. “We would also like to thank the three inmates for standing by with Mr. Smith when their were so many other options they could have taken.”

As a thank you, the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office presented the three men with a Live Saving Award at a Thursday promotion ceremony.

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