ODOT District 11 driver Brandon Anderson, 22, of Midvale, is being praised for stopping to perform CPR on a Stark County man in cardiac arrest. (Submitted)

Strasburg, Ohio - Strasburg firefighters are giving some recognition to an ODOT plow driver who sprung into action Tuesday afternoon to help a Stark County man who went into cardiac arrest.

Chief Dan Varner says a woman was driving near the intersection of state routes 21 and 212 in Bethlehem Township when her 49-year-old male passenger went unconscious and stopped breathing. Varner says ODOT driver Brandon Anderson was in the same area and jumped in to administer CPR until paramedics could get to the scene.

"From what they’re saying, he did four rounds of CPR. He did a heck of a job, and a lot of people don’t do that," Varner says. "It’s extraordinary and it’s nice to see that we have people that are trained and I think it’s catching on to be able to do this."

Varner says the fire department made a post on their Facebook page to publicly thank the good Samaritan for his extraordinary effort. 

"People sometimes criticize fire departments for putting stuff on Facebook, but this is one of those that this guy deserves a little bit of recognition," he says.

Anderson is a seasonal employee for ODOT District 11 based in New Philadelphia. District spokesperson Lauren Borrell says they could not be more proud of the 22-year-old Midvale resident and Indian Valley volunteer coach for his heroic actions.

"I think it just speaks volumes that Brandon was watching out and he knew something was wrong and he stopped what he was doing, and he did what he knew to do," she says. "He wasn’t doing it to be a hero or anything. He was just doing it as a human being to go out of his way to make sure that somebody was going to be ok."

The man Anderson helped was transported to Mercy Medical Center in Canton for further treatment. Sadly, he did not recover and passed away at the hospital later that evening.  

STACEY CARMANY, TUSCO TV