A pollster from the Marist Institute for Public Opinion (MIPO) has been credited with saving the life of a New York City woman, who was slipping into a diabetic coma when he called to interview her one night last week.

Jason Sokolowski - a student at Marist College, which runs its own survey research center MIPO - called 79-year-old Bobby Berlin to ask her opinion about Mayor Bloomberg.

However, during the survey Ms Berlin grew confused and started breathing heavily, so Sokolowski called in his supervisor Daniela Charter, who realised something was wrong and called 911.

When the emergency service reached Ms Berlin, they found that her blood count had dropped so low that if she had slept through the night, she would have been dead by morning.

After being given a clean bill of health, Berlin invited Carter and Sokolowski to visit her, and thanked them for saving her life.

In an interview with NBC, Berlin said her only regret was that she hadn’t been able to answer the pollsters’ questions about Bloomberg, as all her answers would have been negative.

Web site: www.maristpoll.marist.edu .

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