Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: On April 6th 2015 My father went into cardiac arrest. He was taken into emergency where he was flatlined for 25minutes. I was called by a family member to tell me the situation. During this time I was preparing to finish up the last essay of the course. Due to the emergency call I left home to go to the hospital. I wrote an email to the instructor that I was unable to finish the essay and that I will be unable to attend the exam as it was unsure if my father was going to make it or not. The emergency team at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga were able to bring him back with the help of CPR during which he was given a high dose of blood thinner. After several hours in the waiting room, I was reaching out to extended family members to keep them informed. The circumstance was weighing heavily on my family and myself so I was unable to prepare or even glance at my studies. Previous to this incident, I handed all assignments and never missed any deadlines.
During the late evening my father was transferred to Trillium Hospital where they have a special unit for Cardiac. Under the supervision of multiple specialists he was in and out of consciousness. The Intensive care unit were only allowing 2 family members to remain in the room. I am the eldest of my siblings and due to my mother in distress and her inability to speak English fluently, I remained with my father in his room to answer any questions the different doctors had. During this time, I only had access to my phone and between short spurs of sleep in the waiting room, I was unable to tend to my studies or complete my essay. As a result I was unprepared to answer the exam as I also had my full time working responsibilities to plan for. During the few days I only left for few hours to shower, change. As a result I was responsible for keeping immediate and extended family members informed. This time was emotionally and physically taxing for me to concentrate on anything other than my family. I wrote an email to my instructor letting him know that I will not be able to attend the exam due to the circumstances.
I was affected from April 6 till the end of April to which I was responsible for taking care of my mother. The last essay and the final exam were the only pieces that were affected by this circumstance. I was unable to allocate time afterwards as well because it was a difficult time for my family. I made my best efforts to keep my instructor abreast of my situations and noted that I will try to attend the exam as it was the last piece of work left to graduate the course. After 3 days the infectious specialist let me know that my fathers situation was getting worst due to an infection. At this time I wrote another email to my instructor letting him know that I was definitely unable to attend the exam because against my best efforts to try and attend the timing would be difficult for me as I was needed to remain at the hospital due to the extreme changes that went on with his health.