Miami Herald - Sunday, December 18, 1994
Lori Rozsa, Herald Staff Writer

Webb is the fourth patient of dentist David Acer to die. She had lived with HIV for years; by last January, it had developed into full-blown AIDS. Three weeks ago, when the pain was getting so bad that even morphine didn't ease it, she left her Martin County home for the Hospice of Martin in Stuart.

She died there Saturday of AIDS complications, said hospice spokeswoman Maureen Hoyt. It was her 25th wedding anniversary.

"She passed peacefully," said Robert Montgomery, her attorney.

Webb, a mother of three and grandmother of eight, never dwelled on her illness, said Pam Jett, who works at the hospice and became close friends with Webb when she began going there in June.

"She was a warm, caring, vivacious person with a wonderful, zany sense of humor," Jett said. "She was a person who knew how to live her life in the present."

In an interview with The Herald earlier this year, Webb said that if her suffering through AIDS did any good, it was to dispel myths about who can get the disease, and how.

"Now when I think of all the people on God's green earth who had to test HIV-positive, I should have, because who else is going to speak so freely?" Webb said. "I have no hesitation speaking to anyone."

The quiet and serenity surrounding Webb on her day of death contrasted markedly from her life.

She was an active, bustling woman, talkative and inquisitive and busy educating the public about AIDS -- what had become her life's work, even though she knew the end was near.

Webb was among six patients the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed was infected with HIV by Acer. Like Kimberly Bergalis, Acer's first and most famous victim, Webb championed the cause of mandatory testing for health care workers.

"If this man had the courage and medical dignity to admit he had AIDS, we would've been spared," Webb said before Bergalis' death in 1991. "There is no reason for Kim to be dying and for me to be feeling terrible."

Acer died of AIDS complications in 1990. Two days after his death, a letter he wrote to local newspapers was published in which he revealed he had AIDS and recommended to his hundreds of patients that they be tested for HIV.

Webb was shocked at the news. Even after she tested positive for the virus, she still could hardly believe her Jensen Beach dentist -- who pulled four of her teeth -- had given her the illness. But CDC experts told her it was a 99.994 percent certainty that he did.

Most of Acer's patients were sent to him by CIGNA, the insurance company used by several state agencies. Webb and some other patients of Acer's won $999,999 from Acer's malpractice insurance and an undisclosed sum from CIGNA.

Webb scoffed at what she saw as obstacles from the medical community to her crusade for mandatory testing for health care workers.

"She would get into a fit of pique over it," attorney Montgomery said. "She'd ask, 'Why can't they treat the disease like the public health menace that it is, instead of like a private problem.' "

After learning she had HIV, Webb stayed in what she called her "AIDS closet" for six months, even after Bergalis -- a college student who had never had sexual intercourse or taken intravenous drugs -- went public.

She said she saw that people didn't believe Bergalis' story and she wasn't eager to join the young woman under the harsh glare of public scrutiny. But silence was uncharacteristic for Webb.

She soon spoke out and stood by Bergalis until her death. Webb moved to Palm City from New Jersey in 1977, teaching honors English at Martin County High School. In 1987, she was named Teacher of the Year.

In 1988, high blood pressure forced her to retire. But she still taught frequently as a substitute. She didn't quit for good until 1991, when the AIDS medicine tired her too quickly. But she was tireless in fighting her disease. She kept a daily journal and investigated every medical breakthrough. Through it all, her friends say, she remained optimistic.

"She was never bitter," Montgomery said. "She never lamented over it. Facing death the way she did impressed me as much as anything. She was a very courageous person."

Webb is survived by her husband, Robert, and three grown children: Randy, Wendy and Cameron.

The family asked that in lieu of flowers, anyone wishing to help might send donations to Hospice of Martin or to any organization that serves people with AIDS.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Dentist David Acer, who died of AIDS complications in 1990, is the only health professional known to have transmitted HIV to his patients. Six are known to have been infected:

* Barbara Webb, Stuart, Fla., died on Saturday.

* John Yecs Jr., Akron, Ohio, died in 1993 at 36.

* Richard Driskill, Indiantown, Fla., died in 1993 at age 33.

* Kimberly Bergalis, Fort Pierce, Fla., died in 1991 at age 23.

* Sherry Johnson, 19, of Stuart, Fla., still living.

* Lisa Shoemaker, 38, of Empire, Mich., still living.

CAPTION: PHOTO Barbara Webb (a)

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1994. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .