{"id":2538,"date":"2025-05-23T07:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T07:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/?p=2538"},"modified":"2025-05-23T16:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T16:51:12","slug":"thought-he-was-going-to-die-how-mushroom-lunch-almost-killed-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/thought-he-was-going-to-die-how-mushroom-lunch-almost-killed-four\/","title":{"rendered":"'Thought he was going to die': how mushroom lunch almost killed four"},"content":{"rendered":"

An intensive care doctor believed the only surviving guest of Erin Patterson's beef Wellington lunch was going to die.<\/p>\n

Dr Stephen Warrillow shared his concerns to a Victorian<\/a> Supreme Court<\/a> jury on Friday as Patterson stands trial on three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.<\/p>\n

It's alleged she intentionally served beef Wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms during a lunch at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, all died after consuming the meal.<\/p>\n

Heather's husband Ian survived but Warrillow, the intensive care director at Austin Health, told the jury it did not look like he would.<\/p>\n

"We thought he was going to die, he was very close," Warrillow said.<\/p>\n

Mr Wilkinson was the fourth guest to be transported to Austin Health with liver failure in the days after the lunch, the doctor said.<\/p>\n

He was already intubated and suffering from acute liver failure when doctors began rounds of activated charcoal and vitamin C treatment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The jury was told by August 4, Mr Wilkinson's condition had deteriorated and he underwent a laparoscopy to check his bowel, although there were no significant abnormalities.<\/p>\n

Warrillow said Mr Wilkinson then made slow but significant improvements between August 5 and 7.<\/p>\n

"It was very slow because he was coming from extreme clinical illness but he did improve," he told the jury.<\/p>\n

Mr Wilkinson was moved from intensive care to a normal ward on August 21 and then ultimately discharged to a rehabilitation facility on September 11.<\/p>\n

His wife's condition did not improve while at the Austin and she died of acute liver failure in the early hours of August 4.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Gail Patterson also died from the same condition later that day, while her husband Don died at 11.30pm on August 5.<\/p>\n

Don had undergone a liver transplant but his condition continued to get "relentlessly worse" before his death, Warrillow said.<\/p>\n

Similar transplants were not undertaken for Gail and Heather as they were both too unwell, the doctor told the jury.<\/p>\n

Warrillow said the conditions of all four patients were consistent with death cap mushroom poisoning and no other causes for their illnesses were found.<\/p>\n

He told the jury treatment for death cap poisoning was not 100 per cent effective and there were high mortality rates even with optimal care.<\/p>\n

Mr Wilkinson was inside the courtroom to hear Warrillow's evidence, while Erin Patterson appeared visibly upset as the doctor recounted Heather's condition.<\/p>\n

She has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claims it was a terrible accident.<\/p>\n

The trial will resume on Monday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An intensive care doctor believed the only surviving guest of Erin Patterson's beef Wellington lunch was going to die. Dr Stephen Warrillow shared his concerns to a Victorian Supreme Court jury on Friday as Patterson stands trial on three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. It's alleged she intentionally served beef Wellingtons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2538"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2543,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions\/2543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fresnoforeclosure.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}