Latisha was 8 years old when their mom passed away. In high
school, during her senior year, she met Samuel and fell in love. Samuel
is a high school dropout and made a living dealing drugs. Latisha
started using drugs socially at first, but then developed a serious crack
addiction. Latisha and Samuel lived together for 5 years before she
became pregnant. She continued to use drugs during the pregnancy
and did not receive prenatal care because she did not want Samuel toknow she was HIV positive. She delivered a baby girl, Desiree at
32 weeks. Desiree was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit
(NICU) because of respiratory distress and withdrawal symptoms. At
this time, Desiree was diagnosed with HIV and Samuel was informed.
Samuel confronted Latisha and she revealed that she was positive
since birth and did not think it was a big deal.