Police retrieved a leftover sample of an allegedly poisonous beef wellington from Erin Patterson’s home after she discharged herself from hospital, a jury has been told.

The 50-year-old mother faces day eight of her triple murder trial today as she fights allegations she deliberately poisoned four members of her estranged husband’s family.

Her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather, all died in hospital days after a lunch on July 29, 2023 at her home in Leongatha, in Victoria’s south-east.

Heather’s husband Ian was the only survivor of the meal, for whom Patterson is charged with attempted murder.

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges against her.

Leongatha Hospital on-call doctor Veronica Foote’s evidence will continue on Thursday, after telling the jury she had analysed a sample of the poisoned beef wellington.

It followed medical practitioner Chris Webster calling police on Patterson after she had discharged herself from hospital against medical advice on July 31.

Patterson returned to the hospital about one-and-a-half hours later, where she was given a full assessment.

Webster said Patterson gave him permission to tell police to “break in” to her home if necessary, to retrieve a sample of the beef wellington which she said was in the bin.

The sample was taken to the Leongatha Hospital, the jury was told.

A toxicologist treating four lunch guests in Melbourne called Foote and requested the sample be sent to Monash Medical Centre.

“It was in a paper bag from Woolworths,” she told the jury.

She was asked to take photos of it, to see if the mushrooms inside the filling could be identified, she said.

“With gloves on, I took the samples out of the bag, put them on a clean A4 copy of paper and took the photos,” Foote said.

She sent the samples off to Monash in two pathology bags.

Foote said Patterson told her she had eaten the same meal as her four lunch guests and had been suffering abdominal pain, diarrhoea and nausea since but had not been vomiting.

She also told Patterson her children needed to go to Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne to be assessed, as they had eaten leftovers from the lunch.

She said Patterson then tried to leave hospital a second time to collect her children.

“My advice was I thought she could become very unwell very quickly, and that it was not safe for her or her children for her to drive them there and possibly other road users,” she said.

She said Patterson arranged for her estranged husband Simon to pick up the children and take them to hospital.