Erin Patterson has been described as a sociopath by one doctor who met with her while another describes the true horrors of watching her victims suffer.
www.abc.net.au
Intensive care doctor Stephen Warrillow details agonising efforts to save Erin Patterson's mushroom murder victims
"They were devastatingly unwell," Dr Warrillow told 7.30.
All four presented to the hospital with severe symptoms and were treated by a team led by Dr Stephen Warrillow, who is Director of Intensive Care at Austin Health.
Toxins and transplants
Dr Warrillow said all four patients were then put on mechanical ventilators and dialysis-style machines to try and purify their blood.
"Liver transplantation is one of the most complex and lengthy surgical procedures that we would ever do," he said.
"The patient has to be sick enough to need one, but well enough to get through the surgery.
"It takes essentially an entire day and for the theatre team, this is really a marathon.
"It's quite a remarkable outcome for him that he was ultimately able to survive and could recover so well in the end."
Dr Warrillow told 7.30 that he and the treatment team had advised Ian Wilkinson's family it was likely he would die and credited his fortitude and the work of his nurses for his survival.
"Ultimately he stabilised and that took a lot of work from, particularly the bedside nurses, to provide extraordinary measures of support for his circulation, and to try and clear toxins from his blood," he said.
"They did a tremendous job with that."
7.30 ( click for video of ICU Dr )