Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial LIVE updates: Erin Patterson showed ‘no evidence’ of food poisoning, doctor tells court

Monash Health emergency registrar Dr Laura Muldoon told the jury she asked Patterson about ‘her symptoms’ and ‘clinical condition’.

Dr Muldoon told the jury she reported Patterson had nausea and diarrhoea throughout Sunday and into Monday.

‘Erin felt she had suffered food poisoning from a home cooked meal of beef Wellington,’ she said.

‘I asked her about the ingredients (and) she reported eye fillet steak, garlic, dried dehydrated mushrooms, possibly shitake or porcini.’

The doctor said Patterson didn’t have the packed, or any leftover, mushrooms and denied foraging for mushrooms.

‘I noted that she looked clinically well. She had chapped lips, but otherwise looked well,’ she said.

The doctor told the jury she provided advice to continue the liver protection drugs.

She said she saw Patterson again sometime between 9am and 10am on August 1 and reviewed her.

‘She had remained well, she reported she was feeling better,’ Dr Muldoon said.

‘All her blood tests and vitals were normal, there was no evidence of poisoning of any kind.

‘After seeing her, I was tasked with sending the leftovers to a mycologist (a mushroom specialist) at the Royal Botanical Gardens.’

The jury was then shown an image of the leftovers which had been sent for testing.

The image depicted a pastie with some of the mushroom paste removed.

Consultant emergency physician Dr Varuna Ruggoo told the jury Patterson came into her care at the Monash Medical Centre on the morning of August 1.

The doctor said Patterson’s liver function tests were all ‘within normal limits’.

Dr Ruggoo told the jury it seemed Patterson’s health was stable enough to be discharged.

She said it was presumed any suspected food poisoning was likely caused by death cap mushrooms.

Dr Ruggoo said she asked Patterson ‘specifically’ about symptoms including vomiting and diarrhoea and all of the answers were ‘no’.

‘She seemed clinically well with good mood and affect,’ she said.

The doctor added Patterson had a normal respiratory rate, no respiratory distress, normal pulse range, normal blood pressure, that she was alert and her temperature was ‘again within normal limits’.

‘I did (deem her fit for discharge),’ Dr Ruggoo said.

Dr Ruggoo was one of several medical experts including Dr Rhonda Stuart (pictured below) who spoke with Patterson at the Monash Medical Centre.

Dr Rhonda Stuart, who is the director of infection prevention and epidemiology at Monash Health, said she was asked to quiz Patterson on where she got her mushrooms.

‘I was asked to come back and talk to her about a possible public health issue,’ Dr Stuart told the jury.

‘We were worried about the meal. I turned around and drove back to Monash Health to talk to her face-to-face. I saw her in the emergency room about 20 minutes later.’

The doctor said she asked Patterson a series of questions.

‘I asked how she prepared the meal,’ she said.

The doctor said Patterson told her she came to hospital to have her kids checked out.

She said she had given the kids some of that meal, but scraped off the mushroom paste, the jury heard.

Dr Stuart also told the jury Patterson said she’d been unwell on Sunday with ‘gastro-like symptoms’.

‘I asked about the meal,’ she said.

‘She told me she made a beef Wellington and she’d made it with a mushroom paste.

‘I quizzed her about those mushrooms.’

The doctor said Patterson said they came from the supermarket and Asian food shop ‘a number of weeks prior’.

Patterson told the doctor the Asian shop mushrooms were in a sealed packet, which she removed and put into another container, the jury heard.

Dr Stuart said she had been interested in that packet, but it was gone.

She said Patterson told her she made a paste and that she used all of the dried mushrooms to make it.

‘I was worried about those mushrooms but she couldn’t tell me where she got them, Oakleigh or Glen Waverley,’ Dr Stuart said.

The doctor said Patterson said if she ‘drove past that shop she might recognise it.’

‘She did say they had a strong smell,’ Dr Stuart said.

The doctor also denied she had foraged mushrooms.

Dr Stuart said Patterson wanted to know why she was being asked these questions.

‘I told her I was worried about a public health issue,’ Dr Stuart said.

The jury heard a statement from a friend of Patterson’s now 16-year-old son.

Patterson, who is wearing a brown cardigan and a green top, sat quietly as the statement from the then 15-year-old boy was read to the jury.

The teenager said he had been friends with Patterson’s son since Year 6, but couldn’t remember the name of his friend’s dad.

‘Sam and I are very close friends,’ he said.

The teenager said he would visit Patterson’s son at their Leongatha home every Tuesday and Friday after youth club.

He said he stayed the night before the lunch and the next day attended the movies with his friend and sister.

The boy said his friend’s dad dropped him and Patterson’s son at the Leongatha home as the lunch gathering was wrapping up.

He said they all greeted each other and spoke about the son’s flying lessons.

The boy said he and his friend ate some dessert, which he thought may have been a cake or muffin.

The teenager claimed he thought he saw his friend’s grandma cleaning a plate, and believes he saw some white plates in the kitchen sink.

Later that evening, he said Patterson drove him home.

The boy said he spoke with his mate about school and can’t remember if he spoke to Patterson.

‘Erin just seemed like her normal self to me,’ the boy said.

The court heard the boy went home because his friend had a flying lesson the following day.

Flight instructor Ulysses Villalobos made a statement that Patterson seemed ‘easy-going’ and a ‘typical mum’.

He recalled Patterson dropping him off one time and they discussed the son’s flying performance.

‘I told her he was good, and she seemed pretty proud,’ he said in his statement.

He recalled on the Sunday after the lunch that he called Patterson to say he was running late for that afternoon’s lesson.

The lesson was pushed from 2pm to 4pm, but he later called Patterson to cancel due to poor weather.

‘She got grumpy at me,’ he said.

She complained about the hour-long drive and why she hadn’t been contacted earlier.

Accused mushroom killer Erin Patterson, 50, will return to court this morning after she pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and a charge of attempted murder.

The charges relate to a meal Patterson prepared for her in-laws at her Leongatha home on July 29, 2023.

Patterson cooked individual beef Wellingtons which contained death cap mushrooms.

Lunch guests including her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson all died after consuming the lunch and spending several days in hospital.

Heather’s husband Pastor Ian Wilkinson survived after spending several weeks in intensive care.

This is the third week of the trial.

So far, the jury has evidence from several medical witnesses who treated the lunch guests.

Other medical staff who encountered Patterson also told what they knew to the jury.

Paramedic Eleyne Spencer (pictured below right) told the jury how she travelled in a ambulance with Patterson and administered the suspected killer powerful opioid fentanyl to treat a headache.

Family members including Patterson’s estranged husband Simon told the jury how he was invited to the lunch but declined the invitation.

Lone lunch survivor Ian Wilkinson told the jury how he noticed Patterson ate her lunch from a smaller and different coloured plate to those of her guests.

In an emotionally charged end to week two, Patterson choked back tears after video recorded evidence of her children was played to the court.

The trial will resume shortly.