Erin Patterson murder trial hears from doctor who treated lunch guests

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An intensive care specialist has described the final days of Don and Gail Patterson and heather Wilkinson, after their beef wellington lunch in country Victoria in 2023. The court has heard about the decline of Don Patterson after he'd been given a liver transplant in a last-ditch effort to save his life.

Transcript

00:00Erin Patterson became emotional in the dock as the Director of Intensive Care at Austin Health,

00:07Dr Stephen Warrilow, detailed the treatment given to her lunch guests.

00:12The intensivist says he had been alerted to a cluster of poisoning cases

00:16when the first patient, Dom Patterson, arrived from Dandenong Hospital on July 31st, 2023.

00:23He said Mr Patterson was in multiple organ failure and continued to deteriorate

00:28despite aggressive treatment.

00:31Doctors thought the only possibility of saving his life was through a liver transplant.

00:36But despite the surgery, Dr Warrilow says he got relentlessly worse and it became clear he was dying.

00:42He said Dom's wife Gail and her sister Heather Wilkinson were also considered for transplants

00:48but were deemed too sick.

00:49All three died around a week after the lunch.

00:53The only surviving guest, Ian Wilkinson, listened to Dr Warrilow's testimony

00:57from the back of the court, surrounded by other family members.

01:02Dr Warrilow telling Prosecutor Sarah Lenthal,

01:05Pastor Wilkinson had advanced organ failure and was very close to dying.

01:09However, he says Pastor Wilkinson slowly started to improve with treatment.

01:14This week, the court heard from a digital forensic analyst from Victoria Police

01:19who said Facebook messages from an account linked to Ms Patterson

01:22described her husband Simon's family as a lost cause

01:26and said she wanted nothing to do with them.

01:28The messages were sent eight months before the fatal lunch.

01:32Lawyers for Erin Patterson say the deaths were a tragic accident.

01:36The trial continues on Monday.

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