Two inmates on a work crew summoned help and stayed with a detention officer after he lost consciousness while picking up trash Tuesday morning.

Iredell County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Darren Campbell, who supervises the Criminal Investigation Division, said that the detention officer is at Iredell Memorial Hospital, recovering from the incident Tuesday morning.

He said the officer was on Eufola Road near Carriage Road with two inmates on a trash detail. Campbell said the officer and the two inmates were down a steep embankment when the officer lost consciousness.

The two inmates retrieved the officer’s cell phone from his shirt pocket and tried to call 911 but they were unable to get a signal, Campbell said. They walked up the hill and tried again to call 911, this time making contact.

The two inmates then went back to the officer and stayed with him until help arrived.

Campbell said the work crew inmates, all low-level offenders, are trained to do exactly what these two did.