Gage: New hero honored by Tigers in Lakeland
Lakeland, Fla. -- She had never before thrown a baseball.
So she practiced by tossing an orange at a tree.
"I missed it entirely the first time, but hit it with the next two. That made me feel better, but I really had no idea how it was going to go."
Nothing to it.
When it came time for Carolyn Stone of Toledo to throw one of the ceremonial first pitches before Monday's game between the Tigers and Braves at Marchant Stadium, she threw a strike -- or a close enough pitch to be called a strike.
A change-up if ever there was one -- but presentable for a rookie.
Stone is an example of how heroes aren't always on the field at spring training.
A registered nurse for 34 years, including 23 in various emergency rooms -- and before that, a firefighter -- she was attending her first-ever exhibition game on March 20 at Marchant Stadium.
As a fan, she's been to Comerica Park to see the Tigers and is no stranger at Fifth Third Field for Toledo Mud Hens' games, but hadn't ever seen the Tigers play in Lakeland.
"Getting some sun, watching some baseball, I'd been looking forward to it," she said.
The day was broiling hot, though -- topping out 95 degrees.
"Steamiest of the spring," as broadcaster Dan Dickerson remembered -- and with the Yankees in town, the place was packed.
The sun at Marchant Stadium -- but not limited to Marchant among spring-training ballparks -- can be unrelenting.
And merciless on the elderly.
It was going to be a record day in that regard.
Before the game was over, there'd be 11 heat-related medical incidents requiring care, not to mention a lineup of six ambulances on the paved lane outside the gates.
Carolyn Stone's day had just begun -- as a nurse, however, more than as a fan. By the end of it, she had helped to save one life, maybe two, and had tended to a third situation that wasn't life-or-death.
For that, the Tigers honored her by asking her to throw out one of the first pitches. That, of course, was also why -- if you happened to see her -- she was heaving oranges at a tree outside her door.
Responding to emergencies in public is nothing new to Stone. She said it's happened "several times," from someone being stricken in a conference room to individuals "just out on the street" requiring assistance.
She knows what to do. And it's her second nature to do it.
"I never saw him look anything but gray, so I couldn't really tell," she said of the first incident, "but I'd say it was a man about 80-ish."
She didn't know his name nor where he was from. But he wore a Yankees' shirt and she learned on Monday that he's still alive -- so that information filled in some of the identifying blanks.
"I saw him go down," she said. "He collapsed over the hand rail."
That's all she had to see.
"I go without thinking," she said. "I just went. Someone else was at his head, but did not do mouth-to-mouth, so Mike and I began chest compressions."
Mike George, a former police officer whose business card says "Citizen CPR," was the other responder from the crowd. He also threw out a ceremonial first pitch on Monday.
When Stone reached the stricken Yankee fan, however, he wasn't breathing. And he didn't have a pulse.
Without immediate assistance, he would not have lived.
"I looked at him, and I knew," said Stone. "Everyone deserves a chance, though. I'm just thankful he came back."
But he only came back because of ongoing compressions before an AED (automatic external defibrillator) arrived.
The first sign of life was that "he moved his legs," Stone said. "Then he started breathing on his own. But he never opened his eyes."
Stone began to return to her seat, but en route to doing so "there was another man who had collapsed, so I tended to him next."
That man hadn't stopped breathing, though.
At that point, the Tigers began to move Stone and her group to better seats, but before she got there, she encountered yet another individual requiring assistance.
"He was as gray as cement, and was not responsive, but still had a heartbeat," she said. "So he did not require CPR."
It was only after that, at her first exhibition game, that Carolyn Stone got to sit down and watch some of it.
Not that it was much of a treat: The Tigers lost 11-2.
Stone's one wish from that hot and dangerous March 20 was this: "I hope they install more defibrillators here.
"In an airport, you're never more than three minutes away from one. That's why I'd like to see more of them."
Wishful thinking? Not at all.
"It's already been done," said Ron Myers, the Tigers' director of Lakeland operations. "In my opinion, that lady is a hero."
She is.
Because it's true. They're not always on the field.
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