Trine Engebretsen made history and headlines 25 years ago when, as a little girl, she became Florida's first liver-transplant recipient.

Engebretsen is once again helping make local medical history -- as a member of Florida International University's inaugural medical school class.

Engebretsen is among the 43 students who made the cut out of 3,332 applicants.

She's now 28, but Engebretsen's sickly image as a toddler will be recognized by anyone who lived in South Florida in the early 1980s. She was born with a genetic disorder that prevented her liver from creating key enzymes, a deadly condition for the 2 ½-year-old, doctors said.

To save the life of their little girl, her parents, Lars and Mary Ann, launched a public campaign to find her a liver, a doctor and $250,000 to pay for the transplant.

Back then, transplantation was experimental. Her father, a cruise ship captain, often carried his swollen-faced little girl to press conferences in an attempt to draw attention to her plight. A hospital in Pittsburgh finally gave Engebretsen a new liver in 1984.

Today, Engebretsen lives in Hollywood and is married. Her husband, Ryan Labbe, is also a liver-transplant recipient.

Did her illness as a child make her enter medical school?

``Believe it or not, it was my husband's liver problems and my time in the hospital with him that made me become interested in medicine,'' she said.

Her mother still advocates for those in need of vital organs in South Florida and she had followed in her footsteps, Engebretsen said.

That's how she met her husband, on a website for families affected by liver disease where both served as mentors.

Seven months after they started dating, Labbe experienced cirrhosis and was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease. ``Thankfully, he received a liver transplant in May 2008,'' she said.

In her application to FIU medical school, Engebretsen, who has degrees from the University of Miami and Barry University, wrote:

``As a former patient, and care-giver, I will bring empathy and compassion to the bedside.''

Sadly, her father won't be there to see Engebretsen during the traditional White Coat Ceremony on Friday.

He was lost at sea in 1999, just before she started high school.

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