[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 6538]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING SGT. JOHN STONE

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 3, 2011

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, we go to baseball games to relax, root for 
our heroes on the field, and enjoy the company of other fans. But on 
April 14, 2010, for John Stone it was a day to be a hero in the stands 
at Yankee Stadium when he saw a woman choking on a piece of food.
  Mr. Stone, a staff sergeant and medic in the Connecticut National 
Guard who served in Iraq, was enjoying the game in his Don Mattingly 
jersey when he saw a crowd of people around a woman 15 rows away who 
was choking. It was Toby Weiss who came to root for the Yankees but was 
now choking on a piece of food.
  Seeing the crowd, Sgt. Stone assumed all was well, but then he 
realized no one was able to help the terrified woman who was already 
turning blue. He ran to her and performed the Heimlich maneuver and 
jarred loose the food.
  Mrs. Weiss, the wife of Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of 
Riverdale, was checked out at the aid station at the stadium and was 
well enough to return to the game and to thank Sgt. Stone.
  Rabbi Weiss said other people rushed to help his wife but they 
weren't able to help. ``Suddenly,'' he said, ``this kind of Elijah 
figure appeared from nowhere. He knew exactly what to do.'' Mrs. Weiss 
also insisted Sgt. Stone was heaven-sent. ``God sent me an angel,'' she 
said, noting that her unassuming hero blushed over the praise.
  Following the scare, fans applauded, hugged and high-fived Sgt. Stone 
on his way back up to his seat. Stone, who lives in Montville, 
Connecticut, was at the Stadium with his brother Jamie, an Army 
infantry soldier on leave from duty in Afghanistan.
  Sgt. Stone is being honored at Rabbi Weiss's Hebrew Institute of 
Riverdale and I want to join everyone there in congratulating him and 
thanking him for his heroic deed.
  Jews have a saying that to save a life is to save the world. Sgt. 
John Stone has indeed saved a very large part of our world here in 
Riverdale. Sgt. Stone, from his service in Iraq treating our wounded to 
his saving Mrs. Weiss at Yankee Stadium, represents the true character 
of America. I am proud to join in thanking him for his heroic actions.

                          ____________________