Erin Patterson: Doctor’s triple-0 call on mushroom illness aired in court
A doctor’s call to Triple Zero about alleged mushroom killer Erin Patterson has been aired in court as she faces trial for murder.
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A call to triple zero from a doctor treating two of the guests who fell gravely ill after having lunch at Erin Patterson’s home has been aired in court.
Leongatha Hospital’s Dr Chris Webster told the jury shortly after he had arranged for Ian and Heather Wilkinson to be urgently transferred to Dandenong Hospital, Ms Patterson walked into his waiting room.
Ms Patterson, 50, is accused of deliberately poisoning a beef wellington dish intending to kill four members of her estranged husband Simon Patterson’s family on July 29, 2023.
The mother of two, who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and one count of manslaughter, maintains she did not deliberately or intentionally serve the poisoned meal.
Taking the witness stand on Wednesday, Dr Webster said he told Ms Patterson there was a concern about death cap mushroom poisoning and questioned where she had acquired the mushrooms for the lunch.
“Woolworths,” he said she replied.
“It was a single word response: ‘Woolworths’.”
Dr Webster said he impressed upon Ms Patterson the need for immediate treatment but, after leaving her with a nurse for triage, she checked out against medical advice.
“I was surprised,” he said.
“I had just informed her she’d been potentially exposed to a deadly death cap mushroom poisoning and I would have thought being in hospital was the best place to be.”
Dr Webster said he rang the phone number Ms Patterson supplied three times, before contacting police.
The jury was played a recording of the triple-0 phone call which commenced at 9.25am on Monday, July 31.
“This is Dr Chris Webster calling from Leongatha Hospital. I have a concern regarding a patient that presented here earlier that has left the building and is potentially exposed to a fatal toxin,” he said.
There were five people who ate a meal, two of them are in intensive care at Dandenong Hospital, two have been transferred to Dandenong Hospital.”
Dr Webster said he gave police Ms Patterson’s home address but she returned to hospital at 9.48am.
He told the court Ms Patterson had told him her children ate leftovers with the mushroom and pastry scraped off, and he urged her to get them assessed.
“She expressed reluctance … she was concerned they would be frightened,” he said.
“I said they can be scared and alive or dead.”
Dr Webster said he received a call from police at 10.04am when they were outside her home, and he received permission from Ms Patterson for them to enter and collect remnants of the meal from the bin.
Couple ‘raved’ about fatal mushroom meal
A woman killed and a man left in critical condition after a poisoned mushroom lunch had “raved” about the meal to friends before falling ill, a court has heard.
Ian and Heather Wilkinson hosted a meeting with the Korumburra Baptist Church’s management committee, where Mr Wilkinson serves as the pastor, detailed a meeting held shortly after the pair returned from lunch at Erin Patterson’s home.
Statements prepared by church treasurer Angela Child and secretary Jennifer McPhee were read to the jury by prosecutor Jane Warren on Wednesday.
They both described visiting Ian and Heather’s home about 3pm on July 29 for a church meeting and watching the pair arrive in Don and Gail’s car a short time later.
“I waved at Don and Gail, they waved back and looked happy but I didn’t speak to them,” Ms McPhee said.
Ms Child wrote that Heather told her they’d had a “lovely lunch” of beef Wellington and described it as “delicious and beautiful”.
“She continued to rave about the meal,” Ms Child said.
Both women said neither Heather or Ian appeared ill when they left a short time after 4pm.
Doctor suspected meat behind illnesses
Dr Chris Webster, a doctor at Leongatha Hospital who initially treated Ian and Heather, gave evidence he initially suspected dodgy meat after learning of the four sick people.
“That meal, the ingredients that had been consumed, typically the most likely cause for food poisoning would be the meat, not the other ingredients,” he said.
He told the jury his attention had turned to the beef wellington as the source, as both Ian and Heather reported they hadn’t eaten anything since the lunch.
Dr Webster will continue giving evidence when the jury returns from a lunch break at 2.15pm.
Brother’s 1 minute 13 second call to Erin Patterson
The younger brother of Ms Patterson’s estranged husband Simon, Matthew Patterson, was also called to give evidence at his sister-in-law’s trial on Wednesday.
He told the court over the 20 years he’d known Ms Patterson, it appeared her relationship with his older brother was always “amicable and seemed like they communicated well together”.
But he gave evidence he had observed a shift in recent years.
“I would say their conversations were slightly more mechanical, less casual than they were previously,” he said.
Matthew told the court he was present at Don Patterson’s hospital bed when his father was quizzed on the lunch by toxicologists at the Dandenong Hospital.
He said Don couldn’t tell them where the mushrooms in the meal came from, so he offered to call Ms Patterson.
In a call lasting 1 minute and 13 seconds, he told the court he greeted her, asked how she was doing and where the mushrooms were sourced.
“She mentioned fresh mushrooms from Woolies and dried mushrooms from a chinese grocer or shop, I’m not sure the exact words, from the Oakleigh area,” he said.
Under cross examination from defence barrister Sophie Stafford he agreed it was a “friendly interaction” and it seemed like “she was trying to recall” the answers during the conversation.
The topic also turned to a lunch he had with Ms Patterson in 2021, when she said she wanted to reconcile with Simon but only if he attended counselling.
He agreed she had asked his advice on how to approach this.
‘Never happened before’: Daughter recounts surprise at lunch invite
Ian and Heather Wilkinson’s daughter, Ruth Dubois, gave evidence her mother has expressed surprise at being invited to Ms Patterson’s home for lunch.
She said Heather had told her Ms Patterson approached her and Gail after a church service, remarking; “just the two I was looking for”.
Ms Dubois told the jury she expressed surprise at the invite, which Heather Wilkinson shared.
“We were surprised also, that had never happened before,” her mum said.
After Simon Patterson drove her parents to hospital the morning after the lunch, Ms Dubois said she “packed up the car” and went to be by their side.
In hospital, Ian and Heather expressed concern about Ms Patterson’s health, knowing Don and Gail were also ill.
“They asked how Erin was,” she said.
“They talked about their concern for Erin, maybe coming to hospital as a precaution; she had seemingly eaten the same meal as they had.”
Daughter breaks down in mushroom trial
The youngest daughter of Don and Gail Patterson broke down in the witness box as she gave evidence at the triple-murder trial of her sister-in-law.
Taking the stand on Wednesday, Anna Tarrington’s, voice began to falter and she began to tear up as she detailed a phone call with her mother following the lunch.
“I phoned mum on Saturday afternoon after the lunch it was approximately 5pm,” the youngest Patterson child said.
“She said it went well, they had beef wellington and, it was too much for mum so dad finished hers.”
Ms Tarrington told the jury she was notified the next day by her older brother, Simon Patterson, that their parents were in hospital.
Mr Patterson, she said, told her Don, Gail, Ian and Heather were in hospital after spending the night with vomiting and diarrhoea while Erin was also sick but “soldiering on” at home.
She told the jury she stayed in Gail’s hospital room that night, where they discussed that Ms Patterson had brought up a “medical issue” over the lunch.
“I took her to the bathroom many times,” she said.
Under cross-examination, Ms Tarrington confirmed she had grown close with Ms Patterson when they both were pregnant at the same time.
She agreed Ms Patterson and her parents remained supportive and on good terms after the separation, and that Simon and Erin had loaned her about $400,000 for her home.
Doctor details mushroom suspicion after lunch
A toxicologist involved in treating Ms Patterson’s lunch guests has detailed when hospital staff first began to suspect death cap mushroom poisoning.
Called to give evidence on Wednesday, emergency registrar Mark Douglas was called to give evidence about his involvement in treating the lunch guests on July 30.
Dr Douglas was working as the on-call toxicologist, when he received a call from Dr Beth Morgan at Dandenong hospital for advice after Don Patterson presented with “abnormalities in both the liver and blood tests”.
He told the court it was suspected death cap mushroom poisoning could be the cause, but the presentations of the other three lunch guests and clinical guidelines did not indicate the antidote Silibinin should be given.
He said he advised Dr Morgan to continue begin Don with liver protecting medicines, monitor Gail’s condition and check in with the medical teams looking after Ian and Heather.
By the following morning, after Gail’s condition began to worsen, Dr Douglas said they decided to begin treating with Silibinin.
“At that stage there were several other potential causes,” he said.
“The feeling was that we should start the treatment for amanita phalloides (poisoning).”
On Tuesday, Dandenong hospital’s Dr Morgan told the jury of Ms Patterson’s triple-murder trial on Tuesday afternoon Don and Gail Patterson were transported from Korumburra Hospital the day after the lunch, due to Don’s condition worsening.
Don Patterson, the court was told, had eaten half of his wife’s beef Wellington dish served at Erin Patterson’s house in the early afternoon of July 29, 2023.
He began experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms about midnight, with Gail falling ill about an hour later.
Dr Morgan said she first began treating Don about 10pm, with earlier staff initially believing his illness was “most likely due to food poisoning”.
But she said after treatment did not deliver any improvement in his condition, the hospital’s toxicologist, Dr Douglas, suggested amanita phalloides mushroom poisoning could be a concern.
Don was administered medication, including N-acetylcysteine, which Dr Beth said is used to protect the liver during paracetamol overdose.
Simon’s parents Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital in the week after the gathering.
Ms Wilkinson’s husband, Korumburra Baptist Church pastor Ian Wilkinson, fell gravely ill but recovered.
“The defence case is that what happened was a tragedy, a terrible accident,” her barrister Colin Mandy SC said.
The trial, before Justice Christopher Beale, continues.
Originally published as Erin Patterson: Doctor’s triple-0 call on mushroom illness aired in court
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