Nurses and doctors have provided accounts of how Don and Gail Patterson’s health declined following the alleged consumption of a toxic mushroom meal prepared by their former daughter-in-law.
Erin Patterson, 50, is currently on the seventh day of her triple murder trial in regional Victoria, after asserting her innocence on all charges.
She faces charges for the murders of Don and Gail Patterson, both aged 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, as well as the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.
Patient transport officer Cindy Hyde said she travelled to Don and Gail’s home in Korumburra, 120km southeast of Melbourne, about 9.15am the day after the alleged death cap mushroom-laced beef Wellington lunch.
Don told her they had eaten a “beef stroganoff” and the couple had been vomiting and suffered diarrhoea for about eight hours, she said.
“We identified at that stage they had gastric symptoms related to food poisoning,” Hyde told the jury on Tuesday.
Don was so unwell he needed to be loaded into the ambulance in a stretcher as she drove them three minutes to Korumburra Hospital, Hyde said.
When they arrived at urgent care, about 10am on July 30, registered nurse Lisa Shannon said it was clear “Don was considerably sicker than Gail”.
She said Don’s condition deteriorated and the hospital decided he required an immediate transfer to a “tertiary hospital”, where he could get a higher level of care.
The couple was taken to Dandenong Hospital in Melbourne, where Beth Morgan was the on-call doctor.
She said Don reported he had vomited “30 to 40 times” since midnight.
After trying several treatments, doctors realised Don was not suffering food poisoning and referred to a toxicology registrar who suggested “Amanita”, or death cap mushroom, poisoning was more likely the cause of his illness.
Morgan said she tried to source the antidote, Silibinin, from the hospital’s pharmacy and was told they did not have any available and would need to obtain it from an external hospital.
She then called Leongatha Hospital, where Ian and Heather Wilkinson were being seen and recommended treatment before they were transferred to Dandenong.
Ian Wilkinson, who was also called as a witness yesterday, said the last thing he remembered was being given a “charcoal substance to drink” at Dandenong Hospital.
All lunch guests were transferred to the Austin Hospital.
Mr Wilkinson made a full recovery and was discharged on September 21, but his wife Heather and her sister Gail died on August 4 and Don died on August 5.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale continues.
