After 5-year illness,

Until last February, Laticia Mayweather had been in and out of hospitals since she was 10 years old. 

Even when she was out of the hospital, she was tired all the time. 

"All I did was go to school, come home, iron my clothes for next day and then go to sleep," the 16-year-old said.

What had started as flu when she was 10 turned into something much more serious. 

In March, 1999, she was diagnosed with serious liver disease. That's quite unusual for someone so young. 

"I was shocked...it shocked me a lot," Laticia said. "I kept thinking, why me? No one in my family ever had been sick with liver failure.

By last February, the situation had gotten much worse. 

"My doctor said, 'If you don't get a liver transplant within a month, you might pass away,'" she said. But, help was on the way. 

Because her situation was so bad, Laticia had moved up on the list of people waiting for an organ transplant. Earlier, doctors had estimated it might take three years for a donor to be found. 

But, the sickest patients go to the head of the list. Laticia was very sick.

She said, "The same night they said I was so sick a liver donor was found. I had my operation the next morning." One good aspect was that Laticia has Type-O blood. That means she is better able to accept an organ even if the donor has a different blood type. 

Now, Laticia is in school full-time at Beaumont High School. She's a junior and is planning a full schedule. 

From the third grade on, she was so sick she couldn't take gym classes. But, this year, she's hoping to play volleyball. Her doctors say she can participate in all aspects of school life. 

She's also planning for her future. For a career, she'd like to be either a veterinarian or a children's nurse. She said she'd like to be a nurse at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, where she got such good treatment. 

A month after her liver transplant, Laticia was still in the hospital on her birthday. "The nurses threw me a 'Sweet 16' birthday party," she said. She was 16 on March 12. 

Her school classmates also remembered her with balloons and posters. Although she had missed considerable school time, she's been able to keep up with her class. "My principal was helpful in keeping me up on my classwork," she said. "My grades are A-OK," she added. 

Laticia said this summer she's been getting acquainted with residents in her north St. Louis neighborhood. "Nobody in the neighborhood even knew who I was because I was sleeping all the time," she said. 

But, she said, "They know me now. I'm up and about the neighborhood all the time now," she said. 

Although she still has some trouble with her lungs, most of her other illnesses have gone away. "And, I think I'm outgrowing the lung problems," she said.

She said she was very depressed when she was sick all the time. But, now, her attitude is much better and she's happy to be going back to school full-time.