At hospital, Erin Patterson discovered a new meaning for the term witch’s hat
Evidence has been heard detailing Erin Patterson’s hospital visit two days after the death cap mushrooms meal was served.
The term witch’s hat had a very different meaning when Erin Patterson arrived at Leongatha Hospital nearly two days after serving her death cap mushroom meal.
Nurse Mairim Cespon on Thursday gave a detailed account of her encounter with 50-year-old Ms Patterson on the morning of July 31, 2023, which included an emotional response from the accused when her two children were discussed.
Ms Cespon told the court that about 9.48am, Ms Patterson returned to the hospital after having made an earlier visit there.
The nurse said she had settled Ms Patterson into a cubicle and then one of the doctors mentioned that her children needed to be checked out.
At the point, she said the accused became emotional and started crying.
Ms Patterson did not want the children to be stressed and panicked by being pulled out of school, the court heard.
On Thursday, Ms Patterson was in the dock listening as Ms Cespon detailed her medical treatment, which included detailed checks on her bowel movements amid concerns she may have received death cap poisoning as well.
Ms Cespon said she had been looking after Heather Wilkinson, the 66-year-old wife of Baptist Church pastor Ian Wilkinson, who later died.
Heather Wilkinson was in urgent care when Ms Cespon said she saw Ms Patterson out of the corner of her eye, just across the nurses’ station.
“I just saw her peripherally in my vision,’’ she said. “Just sitting down.’’
Ms Patterson had asked, she said, if it were really necessary for her children to have to be checked out when they didn’t have any symptoms and they had eaten only the meat.
It was then that attention shifted to attending to Ms Patterson’s bowel movements. Little was left to the court’s imagination.
Ms Cespon talked about a so-called witch’s hat, a device placed inside a toilet that enables samples to be collected, of both liquids and solids.
Ms Patterson had talked about suffering from diarrhoea and nausea and her progress was measured five times, at 10.04am, 10.06am, 10.10am, 10.15am and 11.50am.
The next steps aren’t worth mentioning, except the nurses were left to make a subjective judgment of how much waste had been excreted.
Ms Cespon said that in Ms Patterson’s case, the volume moved from medium to small and it was liquid.
In a serious murder trial like this, these facts can really matter.
The nurse later agreed she had seen sick patients in the past who had endured similar symptoms.
She said at 10.20am police had handed over a Woolworths paper bag and Ms Patterson had looked inside it.
Ms Cespon said Heather Wilkinson had been treated in the hospital before Ms Patterson and there had been discussions about a transfer to Dandenong Hospital amid concern about her condition.
As she was discussing the case, Mr Wilkinson was in the public gallery, having previously given evidence.
Also in the gallery were other family members and, briefly while the jury was in the court, Detective Inspector Dean Thomas of the Homicide Squad.
Ms Patterson has pleaded not guilty and consistently denied wrongdoing.
The case is continuing.
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