Medical professions giving evidence at trial of Erin Patterson

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Medical professionals who interacted with accused mushroom triple murderer Erin Patterson have given evidence about her condition in the days after the fateful lunch, telling the court she didn't show signs of liver toxicity. Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering three of her estranged husband's relatives, who died after eating beef wellington containing death cap mushrooms.

Transcript

00:00Well, we know that two days after that Beef Wellington lunch was served at Erin Patterson's

00:07home that she had presented to hospital complaining of gastro symptoms and by this point the guests

00:14of that lunch were feeling pretty unwell. They were being treated for death cat mushroom

00:20poisoning. But according to doctors this morning, Erin Patterson, who says that she ate the

00:26same meal as the guests, wasn't displaying the same symptoms. They said that her vital

00:31signs were within normal limits, that there were no signs of liver toxicity and that she

00:38was stable to be discharged. One said that she seemed clinically well and in normal mood

00:43and affect. Now how unwell Erin Patterson was in the aftermath of that lunch is something

00:49that's in dispute. Her defence says that she did become unwell but just not as unwell as

00:54her guests, while the prosecution says that she feigned illness. We also heard from a

01:01public health director at Monash Health. She quizzed Erin Patterson about the origin of the

01:06mushrooms in the meal. She said that Erin Patterson told her that the mushrooms were from Woolworths

01:12and were from a Chinese grocer. She asked her whether they'd been foraged, which she says

01:18that Erin Patterson denied. Now the defence has conceded that she did forage for mushrooms

01:25but that she didn't specifically seek out death cat mushrooms.

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