At Home: Raising the Dead
Halloween may have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the creepy tales are put aside ?til next October. One recent news story is sure to put shivers down the spine: in a case both strange and sad, a Moncton, N.B., woman has made a request to exhume the body of her long-dead child?as she doesn’t believe the body buried there is that of her son.
As the CBC reports, nearly 30 years ago Jeannine Gallant’s son was treated at a Moncton hospital when he was an infant, but when she went to visit him there she was ?presented with a baby who she never believed was her own.? A few months later the child died, but Gallant was still never convinced there hadn’t been some error.
Nearly three decades later, she still can’t shake that lingering doubt and is ?been haunted by that feeling that she never received her son back.?
Gallant claims It’s more than merely a mother’s intuition; She’s never received the autopsy ?that She’s repeatedly requested,? and the hospital and funeral home records disagree on her son’s date of death.
Furthermore, many of her son’s medical records ?have since been lost or discarded.?
To discover the truth, Gallant is requesting that the child’s body be exhumed ?so DNA testing can be performed.? As she told reporters, ?If he’s there, rest in peace. But if he’s not, I want to find him.?
Around the World: Educational Gains
We go to university to receive an education, but many students gain something else: extra pounds that can cling to them long past graduation. In fact, the dreaded ?Freshman 15??a 15-pound gain in the first year of studies?is as much hyped (and feared) as essays and finals. However, a recent study offers news to ease the worries of first-year students: the ?Freshman 15? may not even be remotely accurate.
As The Washington Post reports, the ?common belief that college freshmen gain 15 pounds on average is wildly exaggerated.? In fact, according to the study, during a student’s entire university career a typical female gains just seven to nine pounds, while a male gains 12-13 pounds.
In the first year of studies, the average student gained just three pounds. And 25 per cent ?reported losing weight during their freshman year.?
Still worried? Then avoid excessive partying; the study also discovered that ?heavy alcohol consumption? (?consuming six or more drinks on at least four days a month?) was a key factor in determining whether a student would experience significant weight gain.
