Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 8046
Submitted: August 9, 2021 at 2:32:06 PM
First Name: Laura
Last Name: Svab
Student Number: 20308275
Email: laura_a_svab@hotmail.com
Degree Program: Continuing Studies
Plan: Continuing Studies
Level of Study: 1
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Waive the 21-day or one term deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,
My name is Laura Svab, student number 20308275, and I am a mature student registered for the PSYC100 summer session course. It is with profound sorrow that I am appealing to Queen's University for academic consideration due to the death of my baby 17 days ago.
Throughout the first half of the course, I made a diligent effort to follow the 3-step approach to reading and note taking, I completed all assignments, and earned a 70% on my midterm, which was on June 23rd. I managed to do this as I was working from home as a high school math and science teacher, and also just over 3 months pregnant when I began the course. The week of the midterm was in itself exceptionally difficult as we had a medical emergency with our beloved beagle Big, which potentially threatened his life, and while addressing this concern and agonizing over what to do to support him, I was rushed to the hospital three days after the midterm due to alarming blood loss. This bleeding episode was the beginning of what is now the most devastating experience of my life.
My husband and I lost our little girl July 22nd after a month of being hospitalized (since June 26th) trying to save the pregnancy and her life due to a placenta abruption. She died inside of me at 5 months and 1 day due to intense bleeding that progressively worsened to the point where there was so much blood loss that I endured 8 straight days of contractions, I needed blood transfusions, and which ultimately ruptured our baby's amniotic sac ending her life. I have overcome a lot in my life, but this has been by far the most heartbreaking experience I have endured. I had to deliver our baby, after watching her heart stop inside me, and then hold her in my arms. It was unbearable to let her go and leave her at the hospital. My husband Francis and I are beyond devastated by all that has happened over the past month. Rationally we know we did all that we could to keep our daughter safe and healthy, but my body could just not recover from the initial placenta abruption and bleeding, and now we have to somehow let go of the life we had envisioned with her. She was so resilient, growing so perfectly, with a strong heartbeat until the last hour of her life. My husband and I were already so in love with her and of the idea of sharing in this experience together, and it just feels so cruel, so unfair... We buried our baby, our Flora, two days ago in the Laval Cemetery in Quebec, with our parents.
Throughout the past 7 weeks I have been overwhelmed by what we have gone through, but I did make the effort to connect with my Professor, Lindsey Yessick, twice as the situation evolved. The following is initial message I sent to her after being in the hospital for 3 days (June 28th). I wanted to inform her of what was happening, and I had hoped with all my heart that the situation would stabilize. Just after I sent this message, I had another more serious bleeding episode, and any thought of potentially focusing energy on the course, even just as a distraction, evaporated.
Good morning Professor Yessick,
I am a student in the PYSC100 course, and I need to request an extension for Week 7 and likely week 8??s readings and assignments. I am currently 4 months pregnant, and just completed the school year with my students, as I am high school teacher in Laval, Quebec. This past week was quite stressful with the end of the school year. As well, my 12-year-old dog swallowed a fish hole on Wednesday, wouldn??t eat or drink , which for a Beagle is extremely alarming, so we had to take him to the Vet the morning of the midterm exam. This in itself was very stressful as he has a heart condition and cannot be safely put under, so we were very concerned that we may lose him. He is very precious to my husband and I, so this was a an extremely upsetting and emotional situation. With the stresses of the week, I began readings on Friday, and had intended to do the assignments on the weekend; however, Saturday morning I woke up and all the sudden started bleeding heavily, which was quite traumatic. My husband rushed me to the hospital, where we spent 7 hours waiting and having evaluations done to ensure the baby was ok, and they sent me home by 6pm and put me on strict bedrest. Two hours after I got home, the bleeding started again, but was much more serious. I have been hospitalized ever since due to a hematoma and clotting at the placenta. As you can imagine, this has been an extremely emotional few days, as we thought we lost our baby. What makes this more stressful and traumatic is that we have struggled for years with fertility, and after 6 IUIs, 2 IVF transfers, and one miscarriage, this is our first success; and being 4 months in, we thought we were safe. At this point, I am getting testing and ultrasounds daily to monitor the bleeding and having to remain calm and limit all movements. They are keeping me at the hospital until the bleeding internally has improved/stabilized, which could be several more days or weeks. I am only sharing this with you because I do not believe that my grade in this course should suffer because I am currently not able to devote my attention to the course. I hope to slowly try and catch up, but it just cannot be my priority at the moment. This course has been quite intense up to this point, and I have made great efforts to follow through with all the course readings and requirements, so I do not want to just give up. I hope that you will be understanding and allow me the time needed to turn in the assignments that I will likely miss over the next few weeks. If required, I can ask the doctors here at the hospital to write a note indicating my condition.
Thank you for your time and understanding.
Sincerely,
Laura Svab
On July 10th, the bleeding had slowed down, and it appeared that there was no new bleeding, so the OBGYN at the hospital, Dr. F Latraverse, suggested that it would be better for my mental health to go home and remain on bed rest with weekly checkups. My husband had a hospital bed and table installed in our living room and we were prepared to do whatever it took to protect our baby. I was home for one day and then began losing blood clot after blood clot. We tried not to panic and told ourselves that this was the new normal, as it was also happening at the hospital during the previous two weeks, but then they began to get bigger and more red. After losing a blood clot the size of a fist my husband rushed me back to the hospital July 13th, and the situation only deteriorated from there. Within two days of returning to the hospital, I began to have contractions every night, all night long, and they had to give me Tylenol and morphine each night as they progressively got worse. There was also constant blood loss and alarmingly large blood clots constantly leaving my body. It was terrifying and traumatizing to not only live this experience, but also to live with the prolonged fear that my baby would die inside me and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The doctor decided on July 19th to give me indomethacin to stop the contractions, with the hope that it would allow for the site of the bleeding to heal; however, this was not what happened. Larger clots began to form, and with no contractions they could not be expelled from my body so they began putting pressure on the amniotic sac and caused irreparable and devastating damage. The bleeding ruptured my baby's amniotic sac in the early hours of July 22nd, and her heart stopped several hours later just after 5 am. We watched all this happen as we had numerous scans throughout this time. I then had to endure the agony of delivering my baby knowing that she was dead. It took me two days to let her go and leave the hospital. As I said before, it was unbearable. In these past two weeks I have slowly begun taking steps to process what has happened, and I am also physically recovering from the trauma my body has suffered after being hospitalized, the blood loss, the labour and not moving for a month. In the first week returning home, it has been a challenge to even walk again. My husband and I have also had to make arrangements for our baby's burial, which occurred August 3rd.
It has been very difficult for me to work up the courage to put forth energy to connect with the university and expose my pain and this most deeply personal loss. I am sharing these traumatic details because I need the university to clearly understand that there was absolutely no possibility for me focus any energy on academics over the past 7 weeks, and that it would be cruel and completely unjust to suggest otherwise. As well, despite all that I have suffered and that I am suffering now I have made efforts to inform the university of my situation.
I am able to provide several documents which I hope provide sufficient evidentiary support of all that I have just written. However, if the university requires any further details or documents, please let me know and I will do my best to provide them in a timely manner, as I really wish this to be resolved as quickly as possible for the sake of my mental health.
Ideally, I would appreciate having the opportunity to complete the course once I have had time to grieve the loss of my baby girl. However, after communicating with Professor Yessick, it is my understanding that despite having completed more than half the course material, I am not eligible to receive an IN and complete the course with the incoming Professor. Therefore, I am formally requesting that I be granted a withdrawal from the course, without academic penalty, as well as a full refund, so that I may register for and complete the PSYC100 course when it is next available. I am a high school Math and Science teacher in Montreal, and it was my intention to take this course with the interest of potentially applying for a Masters in Educational Psychology. This is still my desire, so I hope that Queen's University will have the compassion and understanding to support me in this request as I begin to navigate how to move forward during this incredibly difficult time.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Laura Svab
My name is Laura Svab, student number 20308275, and I am a mature student registered for the PSYC100 summer session course. It is with profound sorrow that I am appealing to Queen's University for academic consideration due to the death of my baby 17 days ago.
Throughout the first half of the course, I made a diligent effort to follow the 3-step approach to reading and note taking, I completed all assignments, and earned a 70% on my midterm, which was on June 23rd. I managed to do this as I was working from home as a high school math and science teacher, and also just over 3 months pregnant when I began the course. The week of the midterm was in itself exceptionally difficult as we had a medical emergency with our beloved beagle Big, which potentially threatened his life, and while addressing this concern and agonizing over what to do to support him, I was rushed to the hospital three days after the midterm due to alarming blood loss. This bleeding episode was the beginning of what is now the most devastating experience of my life.
My husband and I lost our little girl July 22nd after a month of being hospitalized (since June 26th) trying to save the pregnancy and her life due to a placenta abruption. She died inside of me at 5 months and 1 day due to intense bleeding that progressively worsened to the point where there was so much blood loss that I endured 8 straight days of contractions, I needed blood transfusions, and which ultimately ruptured our baby's amniotic sac ending her life. I have overcome a lot in my life, but this has been by far the most heartbreaking experience I have endured. I had to deliver our baby, after watching her heart stop inside me, and then hold her in my arms. It was unbearable to let her go and leave her at the hospital. My husband Francis and I are beyond devastated by all that has happened over the past month. Rationally we know we did all that we could to keep our daughter safe and healthy, but my body could just not recover from the initial placenta abruption and bleeding, and now we have to somehow let go of the life we had envisioned with her. She was so resilient, growing so perfectly, with a strong heartbeat until the last hour of her life. My husband and I were already so in love with her and of the idea of sharing in this experience together, and it just feels so cruel, so unfair... We buried our baby, our Flora, two days ago in the Laval Cemetery in Quebec, with our parents.
Throughout the past 7 weeks I have been overwhelmed by what we have gone through, but I did make the effort to connect with my Professor, Lindsey Yessick, twice as the situation evolved. The following is initial message I sent to her after being in the hospital for 3 days (June 28th). I wanted to inform her of what was happening, and I had hoped with all my heart that the situation would stabilize. Just after I sent this message, I had another more serious bleeding episode, and any thought of potentially focusing energy on the course, even just as a distraction, evaporated.
Good morning Professor Yessick,
I am a student in the PYSC100 course, and I need to request an extension for Week 7 and likely week 8??s readings and assignments. I am currently 4 months pregnant, and just completed the school year with my students, as I am high school teacher in Laval, Quebec. This past week was quite stressful with the end of the school year. As well, my 12-year-old dog swallowed a fish hole on Wednesday, wouldn??t eat or drink , which for a Beagle is extremely alarming, so we had to take him to the Vet the morning of the midterm exam. This in itself was very stressful as he has a heart condition and cannot be safely put under, so we were very concerned that we may lose him. He is very precious to my husband and I, so this was a an extremely upsetting and emotional situation. With the stresses of the week, I began readings on Friday, and had intended to do the assignments on the weekend; however, Saturday morning I woke up and all the sudden started bleeding heavily, which was quite traumatic. My husband rushed me to the hospital, where we spent 7 hours waiting and having evaluations done to ensure the baby was ok, and they sent me home by 6pm and put me on strict bedrest. Two hours after I got home, the bleeding started again, but was much more serious. I have been hospitalized ever since due to a hematoma and clotting at the placenta. As you can imagine, this has been an extremely emotional few days, as we thought we lost our baby. What makes this more stressful and traumatic is that we have struggled for years with fertility, and after 6 IUIs, 2 IVF transfers, and one miscarriage, this is our first success; and being 4 months in, we thought we were safe. At this point, I am getting testing and ultrasounds daily to monitor the bleeding and having to remain calm and limit all movements. They are keeping me at the hospital until the bleeding internally has improved/stabilized, which could be several more days or weeks. I am only sharing this with you because I do not believe that my grade in this course should suffer because I am currently not able to devote my attention to the course. I hope to slowly try and catch up, but it just cannot be my priority at the moment. This course has been quite intense up to this point, and I have made great efforts to follow through with all the course readings and requirements, so I do not want to just give up. I hope that you will be understanding and allow me the time needed to turn in the assignments that I will likely miss over the next few weeks. If required, I can ask the doctors here at the hospital to write a note indicating my condition.
Thank you for your time and understanding.
Sincerely,
Laura Svab
On July 10th, the bleeding had slowed down, and it appeared that there was no new bleeding, so the OBGYN at the hospital, Dr. F Latraverse, suggested that it would be better for my mental health to go home and remain on bed rest with weekly checkups. My husband had a hospital bed and table installed in our living room and we were prepared to do whatever it took to protect our baby. I was home for one day and then began losing blood clot after blood clot. We tried not to panic and told ourselves that this was the new normal, as it was also happening at the hospital during the previous two weeks, but then they began to get bigger and more red. After losing a blood clot the size of a fist my husband rushed me back to the hospital July 13th, and the situation only deteriorated from there. Within two days of returning to the hospital, I began to have contractions every night, all night long, and they had to give me Tylenol and morphine each night as they progressively got worse. There was also constant blood loss and alarmingly large blood clots constantly leaving my body. It was terrifying and traumatizing to not only live this experience, but also to live with the prolonged fear that my baby would die inside me and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The doctor decided on July 19th to give me indomethacin to stop the contractions, with the hope that it would allow for the site of the bleeding to heal; however, this was not what happened. Larger clots began to form, and with no contractions they could not be expelled from my body so they began putting pressure on the amniotic sac and caused irreparable and devastating damage. The bleeding ruptured my baby's amniotic sac in the early hours of July 22nd, and her heart stopped several hours later just after 5 am. We watched all this happen as we had numerous scans throughout this time. I then had to endure the agony of delivering my baby knowing that she was dead. It took me two days to let her go and leave the hospital. As I said before, it was unbearable. In these past two weeks I have slowly begun taking steps to process what has happened, and I am also physically recovering from the trauma my body has suffered after being hospitalized, the blood loss, the labour and not moving for a month. In the first week returning home, it has been a challenge to even walk again. My husband and I have also had to make arrangements for our baby's burial, which occurred August 3rd.
It has been very difficult for me to work up the courage to put forth energy to connect with the university and expose my pain and this most deeply personal loss. I am sharing these traumatic details because I need the university to clearly understand that there was absolutely no possibility for me focus any energy on academics over the past 7 weeks, and that it would be cruel and completely unjust to suggest otherwise. As well, despite all that I have suffered and that I am suffering now I have made efforts to inform the university of my situation.
I am able to provide several documents which I hope provide sufficient evidentiary support of all that I have just written. However, if the university requires any further details or documents, please let me know and I will do my best to provide them in a timely manner, as I really wish this to be resolved as quickly as possible for the sake of my mental health.
Ideally, I would appreciate having the opportunity to complete the course once I have had time to grieve the loss of my baby girl. However, after communicating with Professor Yessick, it is my understanding that despite having completed more than half the course material, I am not eligible to receive an IN and complete the course with the incoming Professor. Therefore, I am formally requesting that I be granted a withdrawal from the course, without academic penalty, as well as a full refund, so that I may register for and complete the PSYC100 course when it is next available. I am a high school Math and Science teacher in Montreal, and it was my intention to take this course with the interest of potentially applying for a Masters in Educational Psychology. This is still my desire, so I hope that Queen's University will have the compassion and understanding to support me in this request as I begin to navigate how to move forward during this incredibly difficult time.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Laura Svab
Documentation
Professional Letter: Stillbirth Document.pdf