Old Discharged Debt

I have a friend who filed bankruptcy in 1986 and the debts were all discharged. In the early 90's he tried to get a loan and was told that he was in default on a student loan. He then began a payment plan and later faxed the discharge to the company because all student loans had been listed on the bankruptcy petition. He didn't hear anything for a few years. Bankruptcy petition had contained all student loan debts. Now he is receiving statements for $35,000 student loan from the Department of Education (totally different place from where he had his original loans). There wre several on the petition. How can he determine whether the loans discharged are the ones the Dept of Education has? He has not applied for any student loans since 1980? The petition doesnt' state his student loans weren't discharged, it says all debts were. What should he do.. Very confused...

student loans are only forgiven if they have been in repayment for 7 or more years at the time of filing. They are like herpes man you can't get rid of them you can put them off for many years but soon or later they come back...