Dr. Stephen Warrillow, Director of Intensive Care at Austin Health, has shared the distressing story of his team’s efforts to save the lives of Erin Patterson’s murder victims.
In July 2023, Heather Wilkinson and Don and Gail Patterson were killed after consuming beef Wellingtons laced with poisonous mushrooms, served by Erin Patterson at her home in Leogatha.
A Desperate Battle to Save Lives
The four victims, including Ian Wilkinson, who survived but was critically ill, presented to the hospital with severe symptoms, including multiple organ failure.
“They were devastatingly unwell,” Dr. Warrillow recalled. “It was unusual to have four patients similarly afflicted, and they were critically ill with multiple organ failure.”
The Toxin’s Deadly Path
The toxin from the death cap mushrooms targeted the liver, causing a chain reaction of organ failures.
“Once the liver fails, it tends to drag down all of the other body organs with it,” Dr. Warrillow explained. “What soon follows is kidney failure, circulatory failure, and more general metabolic failure.”
Fighting Against Time
The medical team, led by Dr. Warrillow, worked tirelessly to purge the toxins from the patients’ blood, using mechanical ventilators and dialysis-style machines.
“We also administered specific therapies to try and protect the liver from further injury from Amanita toxin poisoning,” Dr. Warrillow said.
A Remarkable Recovery
Ian Wilkinson’s survival was largely due to the extraordinary work of the bedside clinical team in the ICU.
“He was in multiple organ failure,” Dr. Warrillow said. “But he stabilised, and that took a lot of work from the bedside nurses to provide extraordinary measures of support for his circulation and to try and clear toxins from his blood.”
A Doctor’s Haunting Experience
Dr. Chris Webster, who treated Heather Wilkinson, described the experience as “particularly distressing” and something that would haunt him.
“There was no doubt in my mind from the moment she said ‘Woolworths’ that she was guilty of deliberately putting these poisonous mushrooms in the meal,” Dr. Webster said.
A Sociopathic Killer?
Dr. Webster believes Erin Patterson is a sociopathic killer who wanted her in-laws and her estranged husband’s family out of her life.
“She didn’t want the in-laws in her life, in particular the ex-husband,” Dr. Webster said. “I think because she wanted her children to be her children and not children of a man and a family that she either didn’t understand or didn’t make efforts to connect with.”