New Philadelphia Little Caesars employees Keralyn Songer, Brody Ferris and Nicole Strong are being praised for performing CPR on a co-worker who had gone into cardiac arrest. (Photo by Stacey Carmany, Tusco TV)

New Philadelphia, Ohio - Three pizza shop workers are being praised for their heroic actions during a life-and-death situation. 

Twenty-two-year-old Brody Ferris of New Philadelphia says he was working at the Little Caesar’s Pizza shop on West High Avenue Tuesday evening when one of his co-workers suddenly collapsed and became unresponsive. 

Fortunately, Brody had recently completed CPR training, so he knew just what to do to keep the man stable until help arrived.

"I asked the manager if I should do CPR because I wasn’t entirely sure. I couldn’t feel a pulse, so I just had to assume there wasn’t any, and he wasn’t breathing either, so I ended up doing CPR on him," he recalls.

Store owner Andrea Tyson says two other employees - Keralyn Songer and crew leader Nicole Strong - were also on duty that evening and assisted Brody in this effort. She says she’s incredibly proud of how the team rallied together. 

"Brody is training to be a lifeguard, and he had just gone through the CPR portion of it, so I feel like his instincts with that just kicked in, and the other girl that did the breathing, she said she didn’t really think. She just did it. So it was just kind of amazing the way everybody came together the way they did. I’m just so overwhelmed by it," she says.

The man was transported from the scene to Union Hospital and then transferred to Aultman where he underwent emergency surgery. Tyson says his condition is improving and he is expected to recover. 

New Philadelphia Fire Chief Jim Parrish says the first four minutes are critical in these types of situations, so the employees' quick response may have saved their co-worker's life.

STACEY CARMANY, TUSCO TV