WASHINGTON - In a story you will only see on ABC 7, a Maryland woman has filed a lawsuit after she was fired from her job after undergoing a double-lung transplant. Is it a case of a justified firing -- or unreasonable expectations?

Just a few months ago 48-year-old Tonia Little wouldn't have been able to walk down the hallway.

"It is a feeling where you don't know if this is your last breath," she said.

She also couldn't have agreed to do an interview.

"I would've been coughing; I would have to stop,"  she said.

Little had an incurable disease: sarcoidosis of the lungs. It got worse this summer when she was working as a contract support manager at D.C.'s Water and Sewer Authority (WASA).

"I required oxygen" says Little. "I brought these large tanks of compressed air to work."

This past January she developed a blood clot and infection in her lungs.

"I could have died," she said. "According to my doctor, I only had 33 percent of my lung capacity." 

Doctors put her on a list for a double lung transplant. In July, she got the call.

"It was scary, but I know the quality of life that I had versus the quality that I could have," Little said.

She made an amazing recovery: "Two days after that, I was walking around in the hospital without oxygen," she recalled.

After a 12-week recovery and rehab she got a green light to go back to work.

"I am ready to get back into life and work part of being in my life," said Little.

According to letters, WASA wanted her back full-time, but doctors wrote that she needed to work part-time for two weeks in order to "reacclimate." WASA wrote back because of her inability to work at "full capacity," she was terminated, saying "I wish you well."

"It was a shock," Little recalled. "I couldn't believe it. I could not believe that they were doing this at this time."

She hired an attorney, Omar Melehy.

"They can't legally do that but they did it," Melehy said. "I've never seen a case like it."

Now she's in the second fight of her life.

"It's just unfair," Little said. "This should not happen to anybody."

Little says after all she's been through she wants her job back. A representative for WASA says they have not yet been served with the lawsuit and therefore have no comment.

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