Chilling moment mushroom murderer Erin Patterson discharges herself from hospital sparking panic after fatal meal

The Sun

6 hours ago

THIS is the chilling moment murderer Erin Patterson discharges herself from hospital - sparking panic after she served her fatal meal.
The killer mushroom cook has since been found guilty of killing her in-laws at a deadly lunch.
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Patterson was accused of hiding deadly mushrooms in a meal to murder her estranged husband's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.
She was also accused of attempting to murder Wilkinson's husband Ian by serving a beef wellington laced with poisonous death cap mushrooms.
Patterson pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder for the July 29, 2023, incident.
A sentencing date is yet to be scheduled.
Bombshell footage shows Patterson discharging herself against medical advice from Leongatha hospital - after being told she had potentially been food poisoned.
Footage released by the Supreme Court of Victoria shows a medic attempting to stop Patterson as she tries to leave, pressing the buzzer to open the hospital door.
Her "discharge at own risk" document was revealed, showing she chose to leave from the hospital on her "own responsibility against the advice of the medical officer/senior nursing staff".
Moments after leaving, a hospital worker is captured on CCTV using gloves to inspect the leftover deadly beef wellington after police retrieved it from Patterson's bin - before taking a picture of it.
A call to the police a hospital doctor made was also shown in court.
Dr Chris Webster is heard saying on the phone: "I have a concern regarding a patient that presented here earlier but has left the building and is potentially exposed to a fatal toxin from mushroom poisoning.
'Mushroom killer' Erin Patterson GUILTY of murdering three relatives with deadly beef wellington
"And I've tried several times to get hold of her on her mobile phone.
"So there were five people that ate a meal on Saturday, and two of them are in intensive care at Dandenong Hospital.
"Two have just been transferred from Leongatha Hospital to Dandenong Hospital.
"And Erin presented this morning with symptoms of poisoning.
"While I was attending the other patients, the nurse informed me that she had discharged herself against medical advice."
Meanwhile in other CCTV footage released by the Supreme Court of Victoria shows Patterson trying to cover her tracks by dumping the food dehydrator she used in her twisted murder plot.
Wearing a long coat and sunglasses, Patterson is seen unloading the food dehydrator at the Koonwarra Transfer Station on August 2, 2023 - an apparent attempt to erase evidence linked to the deadly beef wellington meal.
And in a chilling image also released by the court, the meal that left her family dying in agony is laid out next to forensic evidence bags.
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The annotated photo was taken during toxicology testing at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.
It shows plates containing remnants of the now-infamous dish - prepared and served by Patterson in her Leongatha home.
Patterson's three chilling words to her best friend after the guilty verdict stunned court observers.
As she was led back to the cells, she reportedly told Alison Rose Prior: "See you soon."
The pal, in tears, vowed she would visit Patterson in prison, despite the damning verdict.
'I'm her friend and I'll see her – I'll visit with her,' she told reporters outside the courthouse.
In a bizarre prelude to the verdict, Patterson reportedly had black tarps installed around her Leongatha home just days before the jury returned with a decision.
And in the aftermath of the verdict, chilling new medical insight has emerged.
A leading US expert on amatoxin poisoning claims the victims never stood a chance — not because of the mushrooms alone, but due to Australia's outdated treatment protocols.
The specialist, who asked not to be named, slammed the use of the drug silibinin.
They told the Daily Mail it is 'virtually useless' without aggressive hydration and proper kidney function — both of which may have been compromised in the dying victims.
According to the expert, Australian physicians, unfamiliar with such rare cases, were forced to rely on 'past wisdom' around the milk thistle-based drug.
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But once patients' organs began shutting down from severe dehydration, the drug couldn't help.
'They went from sick to catastrophic in a short space of time,' he said.
They added that the silibinin treatment could have backfired if IV fluids were reduced to manage brain swelling — a common emergency response that may have sealed their fate.
The expert went on to say the victims' organs likely entered a rapid death spiral, especially once their kidneys stopped flushing out the deadly amatoxin.
'Lose the kidneys and all of the amatoxin in circulation gets taken up by the liver,' he warned.
Only Ian Wilkinson, the lone survivor, lived long enough for a liver transplant — a rare intervention that ultimately saved him.
Patterson claimed to have purchased dehydrated mushrooms at an Asian supermarket in Melbourne, Australia.
But she couldn't remember exactly where she had bought them from.
Despite Patterson pleading not guilty, she did accept that death cap mushrooms were in the meal she served.
But she argued she didn't intend to harm anyone and that the mushrooms were just a tragic accident.
All of Patterson's victims were related to her estranged husband Simon and died from liver failure within a week of the fatal lunch.
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