Doctor’s call to cops on mushroom cook played in court
Emily Woods |
A concerned doctor’s phone call to police after accused triple murder Erin Patterson discharged herself against medical advice has been publicly aired for the first time.
Jurors heard from 10 witnesses on Wednesday, including family members and doctors, as the mushroom cook’s trial in regional Victoria continues.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges over a death-cap mushroom laced meal she served to her estranged husband’s family on July 29, 2023.
Her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, died in hospital days after the fateful meal.
She also denies the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian.
Medical practitioner Chris Webster discussed his early interactions with Erin Patterson at Leongatha Hospital in Victoria’s southeast.
He said she had arrived at the hospital’s urgent care about 8am on July 31, rang the doorbell and told him: “I’ve got gastro”.
Dr Webster told the jury of 15 people he recognised Patterson as “the chef of the meal”, having treated Ian and Heather at the hospital the day after the lunch.
He told her she may have been exposed to “deadly death cap mushroom poisoning” and referred her to a nurse.
But within five minutes of arriving at hospital, he said Patterson had discharged herself against medical advice.
Dr Webster called Patterson’s phone three times and left voicemails telling her he would contact police.
He told the hospital’s executives what had happened and then called triple zero, a recording of which was played to the jury.
“I have a concern regarding a patient who presented here earlier who left the building and is potentially exposed to fatal mushroom poisoning,” Dr Webster told the police call-taker.
He provided Patterson’s address and informed police two of the people who consumed the meal were in intensive care and another two were being transferred to Dandenong Hospital in Melbourne.
Police officers went to Patterson’s home in Leongatha and called Dr Webster.
He told them Patterson had returned to the hospital and said he decided to “strike while the iron’s hot” by asking her if police could break into her home to find leftovers from the poisonous meal.
“She said they would be able to find some leftovers in the bin,” he said.
When Patterson returned, Dr Webster said he asked about where her two children were because he was concerned for their health, having heard they had eaten leftovers from the meal.
He urged Patterson to get her kids out of school and to a medical centre for assessment, but she said she was concerned “they were going to be frightened”.
“I said, ‘they can be scared and alive, or dead,'” Dr Webster said.
Veronica Foote, who was on duty after Dr Webster, was also at the hospital when Patterson discharged herself.
She spoke to Patterson as she was leaving hospital about concerns for her health and the potential she could “become very unwell” if she did not get medically assessed.
“She told me that she wasn’t able to stay at that point in time,” she told the jury.
“She had to go home … and make some preparations for her animals and children and that she would return to hospital.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the children of the four lunch guests spoke about seeing their loved ones before they died.
Don and Gail’s daughter Anna Terrington sobbed as she recalled going to her mother’s bedside at Dandenong Hospital on July 30.
“I took her to the bathroom many times,” she said, between tears.
Her brother Matthew Patterson arrived at the hospital the following day and found Don was in intensive care and being questioned by toxicology staff.
He called Erin Patterson to ask where the mushrooms were from and she told him from Woolies and a Chinese grocer.
The trial before Justice Christopher Beale will continue on Thursday.
AAP
