Latest / The Mushroom Trial: Say Grace / The fight for life

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The fight for life · The Mushroom Trial: Say Grace

0:02
Speaker 1: Nine podcasts. In this episode, an intensive care specialist recalls
0:07
Speaker 1: the efforts of doctors to save the lunch guests and
0:10
Speaker 1: how close they thought. Ian Wilkinson came to dine.
0:14
Speaker 2: Victoria's mushroom mystery. The mushroom lunch that claimed three lives
0:18
Speaker 2: an Australian family's meal is now the center of a
0:21
Speaker 2: homicide investigation.
0:22
Speaker 3: For bizarre tragedy now grabbing global headlines.
0:25
Speaker 2: Aaron Patterson's alleged victims died after eating a family lunch
0:29
Speaker 2: she'd serve them at her home. I cannot think of
0:32
Speaker 2: another investigation that has generated this level of media and
0:36
Speaker 2: public interest.
0:37
Speaker 1: Four of the guests of that lunch were much loved
0:40
Speaker 1: members of this church.
0:42
Speaker 3: Only one will ever return.
0:43
Speaker 2: People are feeling very heavy with having lost such wonderful people.
0:49
Speaker 1: Today, Aaron Patterson remained here inside her home. She's continued
0:53
Speaker 1: to plead her innocence in a court room in Country Victoria.
0:59
Speaker 1: Aaron Patterson is on trial accused of using death cat
1:02
Speaker 1: mushrooms to kill She's pleaded not guilty to murdering three
1:06
Speaker 1: of her former in laws and attempting to kill a
1:08
Speaker 1: fourth the town's church pastor. It's up to the jurors
1:12
Speaker 1: to decide what happened when Pattison's loved ones sat down
1:15
Speaker 1: to eat. So in this episode, we're going to go
1:18
Speaker 1: through the evidence of a professor, an intensive care specialist,
1:23
Speaker 1: who gave some very detailed evidence as he spoke about
1:26
Speaker 1: the treatment that the four lunch guests that's Donegale Patterson,
1:30
Speaker 1: and Ian and Heather Wilkinson received at Melbourne's Austin Hospital. Now,
1:35
Speaker 1: while all of this was being relayed in court, there
1:37
Speaker 1: were a number of family members and Ian Wilkinson himself
1:40
Speaker 1: in the room.
1:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
1:42
Speaker 2: There was Ian sitting in the back row next to
1:44
Speaker 2: his two daughters, and there was others sitting in the
1:48
Speaker 2: front row as well, maybe just under a dozen different
1:51
Speaker 2: members of the families. We know that throughout the trial
1:54
Speaker 2: many have been present, but there's also a significant number
1:57
Speaker 2: of members of the public now attending. They sit in
2:00
Speaker 2: the corner on the right hand side of the courtroom, Penny.
2:03
Speaker 2: There's also a number of members of the public that
2:05
Speaker 2: are sitting shoulder to shoulder with.
2:06
Speaker 1: Them, and we did see during parts of this evidence,
2:10
Speaker 1: which was at the end of the fourth week of
2:12
Speaker 1: this trial, Aaron Patterson sitting in the Dock did appear
2:16
Speaker 1: quite emotional at times at times to be quite distressed
2:19
Speaker 1: while hearing, particularly about the conditions of the female lunch guests.
2:23
Speaker 1: And we'll sort of come back and forth to you
2:25
Speaker 1: throughout this episode to sort of update on what was
2:28
Speaker 1: happening in the courtroom at the time and different parts
2:30
Speaker 1: of the evidence. But there are quite a lot of
2:33
Speaker 1: large segments of what was heard in the courtroom to
2:35
Speaker 1: make up this episode, because we really want people to
2:38
Speaker 1: understand what it was like listening to this particular doctor's
2:41
Speaker 1: very detailed evidence.
2:42
Speaker 2: He gave evidence via video link beamed into the courtroom
2:46
Speaker 2: from a remote location for the jury to be able
2:48
Speaker 2: to observe, and he really took the jury through the
2:52
Speaker 2: final days of the lunch guests who passed away. We
2:55
Speaker 2: know three passed away and Ian Wilkinson survived, but we
2:58
Speaker 2: also heard a lot about e Wilkinson's medical diagnoses and
3:02
Speaker 2: what was going on in terms of his treatment plan
3:04
Speaker 2: in hospital as well. We've got a real sense of
3:06
Speaker 2: the incredible efforts that were underway behind the scenes to
3:10
Speaker 2: do what they could to save all four lunch guests.
3:13
Speaker 2: We know that three of them passed away in early August,
3:16
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. But Ian Wilkinson was present in court
3:20
Speaker 2: while all of that was detailed, and also his own
3:23
Speaker 2: medical history and what went on for him. He was
3:27
Speaker 2: sitting there listening to that as well.
3:29
Speaker 1: Who you'll be hearing the words of today is Professor
3:31
Speaker 1: Stephen Worrelow. Now, as we mentioned, he's an intensive care
3:35
Speaker 1: specialist with Melbourne's Austin Hospital and he details some of
3:39
Speaker 1: the not only his experience but also the hospitals in
3:43
Speaker 1: what you'll be hearing throughout this evidence. So we'll start
3:46
Speaker 1: off with what the court was basically taken through and
3:49
Speaker 1: this was following some evidence given by the professor that
3:53
Speaker 1: Don Patterson had arrived from karen Burrow Urgent Care to Dandyong,
3:58
Speaker 1: that he'd then come on to the Austin Hospital and
4:00
Speaker 1: at the time that he arrived into the Austin Hospital
4:03
Speaker 1: on the thirty first of July twenty twenty three, he
4:06
Speaker 1: had already been diagnosed with acute liver failure by the
4:09
Speaker 1: critically unwell by the staff at Dandenong. They'd made that
4:12
Speaker 1: diagnosis and these different parts of evidence you'll be hearing
4:16
Speaker 1: all the referencing specific patients and different lunch guests at
4:20
Speaker 1: different times, but we'll begin with what the professor was
4:23
Speaker 1: telling the court about Don Patterson. This is while he
4:25
Speaker 1: was speaking with Sarah Lenthial from the prosecution.
4:28
Speaker 3: The cause of the acute liver failure was considered most
4:31
Speaker 3: likely to be amanita mushrooms. Yes, that's correct, and he
4:35
Speaker 3: was referred to the Austin in anticipation of rapidly deteriorating
4:39
Speaker 3: and needing advanced therapies. Is that right?
4:42
Speaker 4: Yes, that's correct.
4:43
Speaker 3: Is there a reason why the Austin was the preferred
4:46
Speaker 3: destination for a patient like Donald Patterson?
4:49
Speaker 4: Yes, The Austin hosts the state Liver Transplant Service, and
4:53
Speaker 4: so any patients from Victoria or adjacent regions and nearby
4:58
Speaker 4: states would be referred to our of US because we
5:01
Speaker 4: have a comprehensive program to support patients and specific liver
5:04
Speaker 4: problems up to an including liver transplantation if that's needed.
5:10
Speaker 3: Had the Austin treated patients with amanita mushroom poisoning before?
5:15
Speaker 4: Yes, we have.
5:16
Speaker 3: And have you been involved in the care of patients
5:18
Speaker 3: with amanita mushroom poisoning before?
5:21
Speaker 4: Yes? I have.
5:22
Speaker 3: What was Donald Patterson's condition when he arrived at the Austin.
5:26
Speaker 4: He was critically ill and in multiple organ failure. I
5:31
Speaker 4: can go into more details.
5:32
Speaker 3: Perhaps there were various blood tests which indicated he was
5:36
Speaker 3: critically unwell.
5:37
Speaker 4: Yes, so we identified that he had a severe liver
5:41
Speaker 4: injury and severe liver failure. Measurements of specific substance in
5:46
Speaker 4: the blood were extremely high, consistent with severe or massive
5:50
Speaker 4: liver injury. We also saw that as blood clotting measurements
5:54
Speaker 4: were grossly abnormal, consistent with liver failure, and he had
5:59
Speaker 4: a rain of other abnormalities including a build up of
6:03
Speaker 4: acid in the blood and a buildup of ammonia in
6:05
Speaker 4: the blood.
6:06
Speaker 3: Was Donald Patterson receiving various treatments when he arrived at
6:10
Speaker 3: the Austin he was.
6:12
Speaker 4: Our colleagues at Dandenong Hospital had already commenced a range
6:15
Speaker 4: of treatments to try and help support him.
6:18
Speaker 3: He was sedated and intubated.
6:20
Speaker 4: That's correct.
6:21
Speaker 1: Yes, So the court was taken through the professor's evidence
6:25
Speaker 1: of what being intubated meant. And as we've mentioned, he
6:28
Speaker 1: is a intensive care specialist, so he was saying that
6:31
Speaker 1: during all of a lot of these elements he's talking about,
6:33
Speaker 1: these people are in the ICU in intensive care and
6:37
Speaker 1: on a breathing machine, so they're being ventilated with a
6:40
Speaker 1: tube down their mouth at that time.
6:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the order of arrival was something else that
6:44
Speaker 2: the jury was taken through, Penny. We heard that Don
6:47
Speaker 2: arrived first and then hours later he was followed by
6:50
Speaker 2: his wife, Gail, and then the next morning Gail's sister
6:54
Speaker 2: Heather arrived shortly before her husband, Ian Wilkinson arrived. So
6:59
Speaker 2: that was the order of for two days, really following
7:01
Speaker 2: each other in pretty quick succession was Don, Gale, Heather
7:05
Speaker 2: and Ian.
7:06
Speaker 3: And a lot of what.
7:07
Speaker 1: The court was taken through in this evidence was the
7:09
Speaker 1: different treatments that people were given, those efforts of staff
7:12
Speaker 1: that you spoke about before, but also a lot of
7:15
Speaker 1: the testing and investigation that doctors were doing to try
7:17
Speaker 1: and find out what the exact cause was. As you
7:20
Speaker 1: just heard there, they believed the cause to be aminita
7:22
Speaker 1: mushroom poisoning. There were some other tests that were carried out.
7:25
Speaker 1: Here's a little bit more of the evidence. It's no
7:28
Speaker 1: one's real voice now.
7:29
Speaker 3: Were various tests carried out to try to pinpoint the
7:32
Speaker 3: cause of Donald's acute liver failure.
7:34
Speaker 4: Yes, a range of investigations were undertaken to try and
7:37
Speaker 4: find other possible causes. Those included blood tests, some imaging,
7:42
Speaker 4: and ultrasounds to try and test for specific viruses that
7:46
Speaker 4: can cause liver failure, to try and make sure that
7:49
Speaker 4: there wasn't another possible cause for why he was so sick.
7:53
Speaker 3: And what were the results of all those tests.
7:56
Speaker 4: There was no evidence of any other cause of his
7:58
Speaker 4: acute liver failure And.
8:00
Speaker 3: What did you in the team at the Austin ultimately
8:02
Speaker 3: accept the cause of the acute liver failure to be for.
8:05
Speaker 4: Donald, Amanita mushroom poisoning causing acute liver failure.
8:10
Speaker 3: And was that because of the known consumption of mushrooms
8:13
Speaker 3: by Donald and others?
8:14
Speaker 4: Yes, we had been alerted to a cluster of cases
8:18
Speaker 4: of patients that had we were advised, had consumed the
8:22
Speaker 4: same meal that it contained mushrooms and that they had
8:25
Speaker 4: all become very unwell. And that is not an unusual
8:28
Speaker 4: story for Amanita.
8:29
Speaker 3: And was that diagnosis also made because of a clinical
8:33
Speaker 3: cause highly consistent with Amanita mushroom ingestion?
8:37
Speaker 4: Absolutely, his clinical course was pretty typical for a severe
8:41
Speaker 4: poisoning of Amanita mushrooms.
8:43
Speaker 1: Now, throughout this evidence, as we were talking about before,
8:47
Speaker 1: there were treatments mentioned as well, and one of the
8:49
Speaker 1: first ones that was mentioned was something called multi dose
8:53
Speaker 1: activated charcolind Yes. It was explained that this is something
8:57
Speaker 1: that while the amenita poison is in the body, the
8:59
Speaker 1: body team to sort of start to recycle that inside,
9:02
Speaker 1: and that the use of the charcoal is in an
9:05
Speaker 1: attempt to medically remove that poison from someone's bows specifically
9:10
Speaker 1: and get that out of the body by interrupting the
9:12
Speaker 1: recycling process.
9:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, Professor Worlow is explaining that it is largely the
9:17
Speaker 2: liver that takes a real hit from this poison, but
9:20
Speaker 2: also the bow as well, and he explained that there
9:24
Speaker 2: actually isn't really a test to test for toxic mushroom poisoning.
9:29
Speaker 2: Rather it's a focus on the treatment of the symptoms.
9:32
Speaker 2: So it's weighing up all the evidence and I guess
9:37
Speaker 2: figuring out that this is the path that we're going
9:38
Speaker 2: to follow. And then that's why he was taking the
9:41
Speaker 2: jury through all the different treatments, because, as we know,
9:44
Speaker 2: he was trying to explain that sometimes patients get bad
9:48
Speaker 2: from this type of poison, but they start to get
9:50
Speaker 2: a little bit better, but then they get worse as
9:52
Speaker 2: the body starts to recycle the toxins over and over
9:55
Speaker 2: and over through the different organs. And it was at
9:58
Speaker 2: this point when they were all arriving at the austume,
10:00
Speaker 2: you know, this is the final hospital that they attended,
10:02
Speaker 2: that they're all in critical, critical ways really and suffering
10:07
Speaker 2: from multi organ failure.
10:09
Speaker 1: And some of the other treatments that were mentioned throughout
10:12
Speaker 1: multiple bits of evidence about all of the different patients treatments.
10:17
Speaker 1: They all had very similar treatments and very similar investigations,
10:20
Speaker 1: and some of the others is something called ascilla binon.
10:23
Speaker 1: Now we were told in court that this is a
10:25
Speaker 1: specific antidote to aminita mushroom poisoning, so there was an
10:29
Speaker 1: attempt to use that also nak which we've mentioned in
10:31
Speaker 1: previous episodes, which is a drug that's widely used, the
10:35
Speaker 1: professor said for mushroom poisoning with liver failure, but it
10:37
Speaker 1: is also used in other situations where someone might have
10:41
Speaker 1: liver failure.
10:42
Speaker 2: It's used to protect the liver. I think that was
10:44
Speaker 2: the way that it was explained, Penny. It's really this
10:46
Speaker 2: year this big hug around the liver to try and
10:48
Speaker 2: protect it and stop any damage that could follow.
10:51
Speaker 1: And some of the other treatments that were mentioned as well,
10:53
Speaker 1: which you may hear later in the evidence worth things
10:56
Speaker 1: like are using vitamin C as well as plasma exchange.
11:00
Speaker 1: So lots of different sort of roads that these particular
11:03
Speaker 1: doctors took over a number of days.
11:05
Speaker 2: I had a lot of fluid intake. Penny was something
11:07
Speaker 2: else that was mentioned.
11:08
Speaker 1: Heah a lot of intravenous fluids. And as we've sort
11:11
Speaker 1: of set the scene before, it's a hard thing to
11:13
Speaker 1: think about, but all of these people at this point
11:16
Speaker 1: they are being intubated, there is a ventilation to breathing
11:19
Speaker 1: for them, and these doctors are making these decisions around
11:22
Speaker 1: them over quite a few hours. And going back to
11:25
Speaker 1: as the court heard in this sort of way that
11:28
Speaker 1: the evidence was presented, it all started with Donald Patterson
11:31
Speaker 1: and going through a lot of his medical points that
11:35
Speaker 1: then led on to some of the other patients. But
11:37
Speaker 1: it was noted in this part of the professor's evidence
11:39
Speaker 1: while they were talking about all these treatments that he
11:41
Speaker 1: was continuing to deteriorate further sort of by the time
11:45
Speaker 1: it got to the second of August, he was unfortunately worsening.
11:49
Speaker 1: His circulation was struggling, and it was then that he
11:53
Speaker 1: spoke about a surgery that they decided that they would
11:56
Speaker 1: try with Donald Patterson. Here is a little bit more
11:58
Speaker 1: of the professor's evidence as he was speaking with Sarah
12:01
Speaker 1: Lenthil from the prosecution. It's not their voices.
12:04
Speaker 3: Did Donald Patterson undergo surgery on for August twenty twenty three?
12:08
Speaker 4: He did, after extensive consultation with a range of senior specialists.
12:13
Speaker 4: It was thought that the only possibility of saving his
12:16
Speaker 4: life was through a liver transplant. And did that occur, Yes,
12:20
Speaker 4: there was an effort to undertake and complete a liver transplant. Yes.
12:24
Speaker 3: After the liver transplant was carried out, did Donald Patterson's
12:28
Speaker 3: condition improve.
12:29
Speaker 4: No, he got relentlessly worse. Unfortunately.
12:33
Speaker 3: Was it recognized through the day that Donald Patterson was
12:36
Speaker 3: dying despite maximal therapy.
12:39
Speaker 4: Yes, all of our treatments had unfortunately failed, and he
12:42
Speaker 4: was dying despite all of the measures that we were applying.
12:46
Speaker 2: We also heard Penny that the possibility of liver transplants
12:50
Speaker 2: for Gail and Heather was something that was also discussed
12:53
Speaker 2: in that hospital, But the specialists ultimately decided that the
12:56
Speaker 2: sisters were too unwell to undergo surgery, and that was
13:00
Speaker 2: the decision that was made for Don but not for
13:02
Speaker 2: the others.
13:03
Speaker 3: And it was spoken about.
13:04
Speaker 1: The judge clarified at one point that had this been
13:08
Speaker 1: not so much a successful liver transplant for Don, but
13:10
Speaker 1: had it happened? And the professor said, yes, we did
13:12
Speaker 1: perform the liver transplant, but unfortunately that Don Patterson had
13:16
Speaker 1: passed away at the Austin hospital. Following that that he
13:20
Speaker 1: continued to get worse despite the fact that they.
13:22
Speaker 3: Were giving him.
13:23
Speaker 1: I believe he said every there were no other treatments left.
13:26
Speaker 1: They'd given him all the treatments, and that was essentially
13:28
Speaker 1: the case for the other two lunch guests as well,
13:31
Speaker 1: Gail and Heather. But here is a little bit more
13:33
Speaker 1: of the professor's evidence as he was speaking with Sarah
13:35
Speaker 1: Lenthil from the prosecution. It's not their voices.
13:38
Speaker 3: Did she continue to receive maximal treatment and therapy she.
13:42
Speaker 4: Was on everything that we had.
13:43
Speaker 3: Yes, was an emergency liver transplant considered for Gail.
13:47
Speaker 4: There was a lot of discussion about whether it was
13:49
Speaker 4: possible to undertake in her given the advanced state of
13:53
Speaker 4: a multiple organ failure, so it was certainly considered yes.
13:57
Speaker 3: Did she ultimately have a liver transplant.
14:00
Speaker 4: No, she did not. The view of the consensus opinion
14:05
Speaker 4: of all of the contributing senior specialists from intensive care,
14:09
Speaker 4: the liver transplant unit, and toxicology was that she was
14:13
Speaker 4: too sick to undergo the necessary surgery.
14:16
Speaker 3: On three and four August, did Gal's condition continue to decline?
14:20
Speaker 4: Yes, she progressively became more unwell, and.
14:23
Speaker 1: As we spoke about before, the doctors again said they
14:26
Speaker 1: discussed whether they could try for surgery with Heather as well,
14:29
Speaker 1: but that she was not well enough at that point.
14:33
Speaker 1: But will bring you a little bit more of this
14:34
Speaker 1: evidence so you can sort of hear what the professor
14:37
Speaker 1: was describing when he was talking about the teams that
14:39
Speaker 1: were coming together to try and decide what the best
14:42
Speaker 1: course of action for these people were. Here's a little
14:44
Speaker 1: bit more of what the court heard.
14:46
Speaker 3: How was Heather Wilkinson's condition by second August twenty twenty three?
14:50
Speaker 4: She had a rapidly progressive deterioration of her multiple organ failure.
14:56
Speaker 3: Was a decision made to list her for an emergency
14:59
Speaker 3: liver transplant?
15:00
Speaker 4: There were discussions about whether that would be possible.
15:02
Speaker 3: Yes, was it possible?
15:04
Speaker 4: Ultimately no, she was too unwell to undergo the complex
15:07
Speaker 4: and extensive surgery required for a liver transplant, all.
15:10
Speaker 3: Right, and after extensive consultation between the medical teams, was
15:15
Speaker 3: it acknowledged that Heather was not going to survive.
15:18
Speaker 4: It was very apparent that this was not survivable.
15:21
Speaker 2: Yes, it was at this point, Penny, that we could
15:24
Speaker 2: see in the courtroom seated in the back road, there
15:26
Speaker 2: was a number of family members of Heather's visibly upset.
15:31
Speaker 2: There was hand holding and hands on knees and you
15:34
Speaker 2: could see almost shoulders touching as a sign of support
15:37
Speaker 2: while these final hours and days of Heather's life were
15:40
Speaker 2: being described.
15:41
Speaker 1: And as we've taken you through in this evidence, this
15:43
Speaker 1: is the order that everyone heard in the courtroom to
15:45
Speaker 1: quite a bit of detail about Don, then Gayle and
15:48
Speaker 1: then Heather. So by the time these family members were
15:50
Speaker 1: hearing this evidence, they had previously also heard it about
15:54
Speaker 1: about the Pattersons as well. And it was after it
15:57
Speaker 1: was put through the professor's evidence that all these three people,
16:01
Speaker 1: including Gail and Heather, had passed away at the Austin hospital.
16:05
Speaker 1: They came to Ian Wilkinson as part of the evidence,
16:08
Speaker 1: and as you mentioned, he's sitting in the courtroom watching
16:11
Speaker 1: all of this unfold and initially what the professor was
16:16
Speaker 1: sort of asked about was again the very similar questions
16:19
Speaker 1: that he was for all of the patients. But what
16:21
Speaker 1: did all of these staff conclude was the cause of
16:25
Speaker 1: his liver and organ failure and what sort of investigations
16:28
Speaker 1: they had done.
16:29
Speaker 2: The way that it was described to the jury was
16:31
Speaker 2: after Ian Wilkinson arrived. His condition also declined in the
16:36
Speaker 2: days after he arrived, and he had high levels of
16:38
Speaker 2: acid in his blood and an abnormal heart rhythm as well.
16:42
Speaker 2: But the way that it was explained to the jury
16:44
Speaker 2: was that the passes condition did slowly improve from about
16:47
Speaker 2: the fifth of August twenty twenty three, and he was
16:50
Speaker 2: eventually taken off breathing tubes about the fourteenth of August
16:54
Speaker 2: that same year. But he explained that it was very
16:57
Speaker 2: very slow. This process was very very slow coming out
17:00
Speaker 2: of an extreme critical illness.
17:03
Speaker 1: Let's hear a little bit from the professor's evidence on
17:05
Speaker 1: those initial concerns and treatment.
17:08
Speaker 3: What do medical staff at the Austin conclude about the
17:12
Speaker 3: cause of Ian Wilkinson's acute liver failure?
17:14
Speaker 4: That it was due to amanita mushroom poisoning.
17:17
Speaker 3: For the same reasons we've discussed in relation to the
17:20
Speaker 3: other three.
17:20
Speaker 4: All right, that's correct.
17:22
Speaker 3: Now we have been discussing one August. How was Ian
17:27
Speaker 3: Wilkinson's condition? By two August he.
17:29
Speaker 4: Was extremely unwell with advanced multiple organ failure.
17:33
Speaker 3: What about three August.
17:35
Speaker 4: He became more unwell, deteriorated further, particularly as circulation was
17:40
Speaker 4: requiring considerably more support.
17:42
Speaker 3: Did you commence a plasma exchange on that date?
17:45
Speaker 4: I recall I think it was on the third Yes,
17:48
Speaker 4: for August, did he continue to deteriorate. Yes, the acid
17:53
Speaker 4: in his blood was higher and he needed more additional
17:56
Speaker 4: support for his circulation, and he developed an abnormal art rhythm.
18:01
Speaker 1: Now, the professor gave evidence that before there was any
18:04
Speaker 1: improvement in the condition of Ian Wilkinson, they did perform
18:08
Speaker 1: some surgery on him as well. Yes, it was. It
18:11
Speaker 1: wasn't a liver transplant like with Don Patterson. It was
18:13
Speaker 1: what was described as a laparoscopy, which it was sort
18:16
Speaker 1: of explained through the professor's evidence that they were worried
18:20
Speaker 1: about issues with the bow and they needed to get
18:22
Speaker 1: in and see that through sort of through his abdomen
18:26
Speaker 1: and that. But once they had performed this surgery. They
18:29
Speaker 1: actually didn't find that there was any significant issues yeah,
18:33
Speaker 1: with his bow, So it wasn't a liver transplant or
18:36
Speaker 1: anything that Ian underwent. Quite a different surgery to Don.
18:39
Speaker 1: And as you mentioned before, there was these As everyone
18:42
Speaker 1: knows Ian Wilkinson, he's given evidence in.
18:45
Speaker 3: This trial too.
18:45
Speaker 1: He he did survive, but it was after quite a
18:48
Speaker 1: bit of time in different hospitals. And here's a little
18:51
Speaker 1: bit of what the professor said when he was being
18:53
Speaker 1: asked about Ian's recovery and ultimately how close they thought
18:58
Speaker 1: they came to Ian losing his life.
19:00
Speaker 3: Life too.
19:00
Speaker 1: Here's more of what the court heard. It's voiced by actors.
19:03
Speaker 3: Did he continue to improve over the days that followed that, Yes, it.
19:08
Speaker 4: Was very slow because he was coming from a situation
19:11
Speaker 4: of extreme critical illness, but he did slightly improve over
19:15
Speaker 4: that time. Yes.
19:17
Speaker 3: Was he eventually excubated on fourteen August?
19:20
Speaker 4: Yes?
19:21
Speaker 3: Was he discharged from the ICU to the ward on
19:24
Speaker 3: twenty one August?
19:26
Speaker 4: Yes?
19:26
Speaker 3: Was he discharged to a rehabilitation ward at Heidelberg Hospital
19:30
Speaker 3: on eleven September? Yes, and he was eventually discharged home.
19:35
Speaker 4: Yes.
19:36
Speaker 3: How close did Ian Wilkinson come to dying?
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Speaker 4: We thought he was going to die. He was very close.
19:42
Speaker 2: At this point, Penny, we were able to look over
19:44
Speaker 2: and see Ian Wilkinson. As we mentioned earlier, he was
19:47
Speaker 2: seated in the court room and he appeared incredibly stoic.
19:50
Speaker 2: He was seated there with his arms crossed, sort of
19:52
Speaker 2: staring blankly ahead while all of this information about him,
19:56
Speaker 2: his health information was being read out to the jury.
20:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, he certainly didn't show any visible reactions to when
20:03
Speaker 1: particularly as the prosecutor turned through the screen through the
20:08
Speaker 1: video link to this professor who was giving evidence from
20:11
Speaker 1: the Austin hospital from his office you could see all
20:14
Speaker 1: of his many qualifications behind him and said, quite frankly
20:18
Speaker 1: to him, how close did this man come to dying?
20:21
Speaker 3: And it was quite a.
20:24
Speaker 1: Moment in the courtroom where I feel everyone sort of
20:27
Speaker 1: stopped not only to look at Ian Wilkinson, but sort
20:29
Speaker 1: of to acknowledge what was happening around them. And he
20:32
Speaker 1: showed no visible signs and just continued to watch the evidence.
20:35
Speaker 1: Says he has on every other day that he's.
20:37
Speaker 2: Been there, incredibly composed.
20:39
Speaker 1: Now, the court has also begun hearing from a number
20:41
Speaker 1: of new witnesses for the fifth week of evidence and
20:44
Speaker 1: we'll be bringing you this in our next episode. Thank
20:48
Speaker 1: you for listening to this episode of Say Grace. Please
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Speaker 1: press the follow button in your app to get our
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Speaker 1: next episodes as soon as we publish.
20:55
Speaker 2: For more reporting on the case, check out the Age
20:57
Speaker 2: of nine News in your browser or app store.
21:00
Speaker 1: To acknowledge the traditional owners of the land that this
21:02
Speaker 1: podcast was recorded on and wherever you're listening to it now.
21:05
Speaker 1: Say Grace is created and hosted.
21:07
Speaker 3: By me Penelope Lesh and me Erin Percy.
21:10
Speaker 1: This podcast is produced by Genevieve Rule.