Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: May 23, 2018

Associate Dean (studies)
Queens University

My name is Julia Paganin, I am an undergraduate student of Kinesiology, going to the second year. Due to health conditions that have impaired me during the final exams periods, I am appealing to late drop GEOL 106 and credit standing in SPAN 112, BIOL 102, PSYC 100 and KNPE 153.
On December 10th, 2017, I had a severe concussion while playing soccer. At that time, I lost consciousness, had a syncope and ended up in the KGH emergency. It was during the Fall final exams period; however, as the medical exams done at the hospital were normal, and after consulting with a Queens physician, I was allowed to continue my activities with some restrictions. Therefore, although I would still present symptoms as dizziness, difficulty to focus, impaired vision and headaches, I registered with the accessibility services, met my advisor ¿¿ Bonney Hunt ¿¿ who arranged accommodations and decided to write the other exams. Before meeting Bonney, I had SPAN 111 and HLTH 101 on a day, which I did not want to miss as I thought I could face the situation. I was able to complete them but during that week, I had to stay inside my room with the lights off and was not able to write BIOL 102, being deferred. KNPE 153 was the last one and I managed to write that day; nonetheless, it was hard for me to do it with all the symptoms and I knew it would impair my performance. After the fall exams period was over, I went back to Brazil, where is home for me, to spend the winter break with my family and also to see my doctors. I have done medical exams during the last week of December in Brazil, as MRI, EEG (repeated at KGH in March, 2018) and blood ones; everything was normal, I was feeling better every day and positive about my recovery. In the beginning of January, I got back to Canada for the return of the classes and was being accompanied by Dr. OConnor, the varsity athletes physician. I followed the recommendations and in February, I was also able to return to soccer again. During the following months, I was back to my normal but sometimes, I would feel dizzy staying in smaller rooms or when focusing for long, but it was not too often and with the accommodations, I was able to keep up with my academic life. However, in the week of April 9th, I was playing basketball with some friends for fun and as a study break, when suddenly my vision got blurred and I felt very dizzy, as I was going to pass out again. I sat down for awhile and got a bit better, I thought it was nothing too serious, but since then, I have not got back to my normal yet. During the following days, I tried to continue with my life normally and write the exam I had that week, PSYC 100, and also train with the soccer team, but I knew there was something wrong with me. I have tolerated the feeling of ¿¿disconnection¿ and out of me for a week, until the point that when writing the BIOL 102 exam - that was deferred from the past term due to the concussion ¿¿ I started with even worse symptoms as incapacity to walk, feeling weak as I was going to fall and pass out, nauseous, fevers, impaired vision as my head was disconnected from my body. Therefore, on Wednesday, April 18th, I went to the KGH emergency, not only concerned about my health but also about the exams. The doctor examined me and said it could be a post-concussion syndrome, from the one I had in December, and forwarded me to the KOPI clinic where I am following up now. Concerned about my grades and not wanting to postpone anything - that besides all, could also affect my Strength & Conditioning mini-stream acceptance, which is truly important to me ¿¿ I got out of the hospital and my friend drove me to my GEOL 106 exam. I thought I could face this situation again; however, in the classroom I felt the respective symptoms and could not finish reading the exam, just filled the grid and left, scared to faint in the classroom. I had 3 hours and 45 minutes to write it, but I could not stay for more than 1 hour. On that night, I emailed the Geology professors and I was told to ask for an appeal, possibility that was not aware of before, in the last term. Additionally, I called my doctors back home and was recommended to take a medicine for dizziness, as it could help me to write my next exam, SPAN 112, on the following day, Thursday, April 19th. I was considering to ask for a deferral but as it was already the day of the exam and Spanish normally does not require me a lot, having facility in it, I believed I could do it. Nevertheless, during the exam, I was impaired by the same symptoms and was unable to excel as I could have under normal conditions. I would still have another exam on Monday, the 23rd, KNPE 125, but decided not to try to write again after these attemps; accordingly, I talked to the professor, who has allowed me to write it during the summer.
On April 25th, I went back to Brazil, saw my doctors and all the medical exams done (MRI, audiometry, blood tests and cardiology evaluation) were normal; therefore was oriented to be patient and only return to all my activities when I am fully asymptomatic. I returned to Kingston last week in order to solve my academic situation and to come back to my usual activities according to my recovery, being already oriented by Dr. OConnor here. During the next month, I will be writing the KNPE 125 exam and I am also taking a summer course, HLTH 230, with the aim to alleviate the load for the Fall if needed. I have also seen my accessibility advisor again to arrange the accommodations needed for the following months. I am doing everything to reconquer my grades as well as my mini-stream spot, and at the same time, respecting my recovery time to be healthy soon.