One Year: 1990 | 5. The Angry Death of Kimberly Bergalis

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before 1990, there had never been a documented case of a patient getting HIV from a health care worker. Kimberly Bergalis changed that. Her claim that she’d been infected by her dentist would captivate and terrify the country. And the dentist, David Acer, would be made into a villain without America ever knowing who he really was. This episode was written by Kelly Jones and Josh Levin, One Year’s editorial director. One Year’s senior producer is Evan Chung. This episode was produced by Kelly Jones and Evan Chung, with additional production by Olivia Briley. It was edited by Joel Meyer and Derek John, Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts. Merritt Jacob is senior technical director. We had mixing help from Kevin Bendis. We had production help this season from Jabari Butler. Join Slate Plus to get a special behind-the-scenes conversation at the end of our season about how we put together our 1990 stories. Slate Plus members also get to listen to all Slate podcasts without any ads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	On September 26, 1991, Capitol Hill was on edge. There was a big congressional hearing that morning, and nobody was on edge.
0:10.0	There was a big congressional hearing that morning and nobody was sure if the star
0:14.9	witness was going to make it.
0:16.3	And right now she's able to, she's able to function about 10 minutes.
0:21.5	Okay.
0:21.9	Okay. Okay. Well I don't think. It was around 9 a.m.
0:24.0	when her wheelchair rolled into the hearing room.
0:27.0	She was immediately sworn by photographers.
0:30.0	Thank you.
0:32.0	Thank you.
0:35.0	The woman everyone had come to see was Kimberly Brigallis.
0:39.0	Millions of Americans had heard her story.
0:42.0	Now it was obvious that she didn't have much time left. She was
0:45.3	23 years old and weighed just 70 pounds. Her hair was short and
0:51.3	wispy and she wore a blazer decorated with pale flowers.
0:55.0	As the cameras closed in, her eyes stayed pointed at the floor.
1:00.0	Okay, we want to. In our hearing.
1:04.0	Someone kneeled down and clipped a microphone to Kimberly's lapel,
1:08.0	a few inches from the crucifix that dangled from her neck.
1:12.0	Then the chairman of this House subcommittee,
1:14.7	California's Henry Waxman, made some very brief opening remarks.
1:18.8	Normally at a hearing such as this, the members of the committee would do a lot of talking. I think today
	...

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