Now that the election season is upon us, people are probably dreading the inevitable phone calls from polling agencies, which always seem to come at the most inopportune time. I mean, there you are, serving the family dinner, and you and your spouse are already a little harried because of your long day, and Leslie is acting all sullen because she's at "that age," and Timmy is refusing to eat his lima beans (perfectly understandable, they are FROM HELL) and the phone rings and you pick it up and it's a pollster with a bunch of complicated questions about your political preferences, and you're like, "Gah, I don't have the time for this," but you stay on the line and answer the questions because, you know, DEMOCRACY.
Well, as annoying as it can be to entertain calls from pollsters, consider this: some of those pollsters might be straight up saving lives. Well, two of them are doing that, anyway. The sample size is small, but the heroism is off the charts!
Over at NBC New York, Melissa Russo tells the tale of a Marist college student named Jason who brought honor and glory to the polling profession this past Monday night when he called New York City resident Bobby Berlin to inquire about Mayor Michael Bloomberg and quickly deduced that something was wrong. At the time, Berlin was going into diabetic shock, and Jason recognized that "something just sounded off." Enlisting the help of his supervisor, Daniela Carter, the pollsters swung into action:
Carter stayed on the line and called 911. Responders determined the address Berlin had given authorities was incorrect, but the FDNY was able to track down the right address using her phone number.
"The man from the ambulette said I would have died during the night," Berlin said later.
"It had to be fate," said Carter. "It just had to be. Because what are the odds? What if we hadn't called?"
View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.
Thank God for cold calling, right? Anyway go read the whole thing, because it's a feel-good story and the best thing is that Melissa Russo got the answers to the pollsters' questions in the end.
READ THE WHOLE THING:
Pollster's Phone Call Saves NYC Woman's Life [NBC New York]