(CNN) An Ohio man, his family, and a few Subway employees worked 12 hours to make and deliver 5,000 sandwiches as a "thank you" to University Hospital staff in Cleveland during the coronavirus pandemic.

On March 24, a day after Gov. Mike DeWine's stay-at-home order was enacted, David Coury was in the hospital. The 54-year-old needed surgery to remove cancer from his tongue.

"The day I was in there was the height of fear, so to speak, or the unknown of what was going on," Coury told CNN.

"I just looked around, and it was amazing to me to see all of these people going about their business -- carefully -- but still they were taking care of everybody else, including me," he said. "It just moved me."

Coury's brother-in-law, Ghazi Faddoul, owns multiple Subway franchises in Northeast Ohio. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, one of his stores has closed and the others are operating with extremely shortened schedules, some selling less than $50 a day.

Five thousand Subway sandwiches were donated to University Hospital staff in Cleveland, Ohio.

Read More