Maradona death trial: Diego was not fit for home care, says doctor

Diego Maradona "was not a patient fit for home care" following his neurosurgery in 2020, primarily due to the need for "detoxification" from alcohol, an intensive care doctor said on Tuesday in the trial regarding the football icon's death.

The football legend died on November 25, 2020 at age 60, while recovering at home from brain surgery for a blood clot.

His seven-person medical team is on trial for what prosecutors have called the "horror theatre" of his care in the final days of his life, at a private home in the Greater Buenos Aires suburb of Tigre.

Maradona died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema – a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs – just weeks after going under the knife.

One of the central questions in the trial is whether the decision to place him in home care, rather than a medical facility, put his life at risk.

Fernando Villarejo, head of intensive care at Clínica Olivos where Maradona underwent surgery on November 3, stated that the football legend "was not a patient who should have been placed in home care" due to the complexity of his condition.

“We had been monitoring him for days, sedated. I didn’t believe he could be taken out of an institutional setting,” he told the court.

Villarejo said that detoxification was “very difficult to carry out in either an intensive care unit or at home,” and that Maradona should have been transferred to a rehabilitation clinic instead.

“We’re talking about a situation where you need to detox a patient, and they could experience episodes of psychomotor agitation, self-medicate, eat anything... and that’s very hard to anticipate professionally in a home setting,” he explained. 

According to the doctor, both family and physicians were trying to help Maradona overcome his alcohol addiction.

Villarejo also said doctors at Clínica Olivos had pushed for Maradona to be transferred to a rehabilitation facility that could offer both medical and neuropsychiatric care. 

However, his primary doctor, Leopoldo Luque, allegedly rejected the recommendation.

According to Villarejo, Maradona was also operated on without undergoing the necessary pre-surgical assessments. 

He also criticised the lack of a clear treatment plan, saying the appropriate course would have been admission to a rehabilitation centre with a multidisciplinary team. That suggestion, too, was turned down in favour of home care.

Villarejo further testified that Luque prohibited other doctors from evaluating Maradona during his recovery, a decision he said only deepened the lack of medical oversight.

Also testifying on Tuesday was Diego Dimitroff, director of Clínica Olivos, who also expressed disagreement with the decision to discharge Maradona to home care. 

He argued the footballer should have remained at a medical facility given the severity of his condition.

Villarejo recalled that Luque had told him that "the real problem" was that Maradona was "unmanageable behaviourally." 

He said that both Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, who is also facing charges, had asked him "to sedate him indefinitely" following the operation.

Villarejo said he complied, despite his misgivings, and sedated Maradona for 24 hours.

Maradona’s nursing team – Luque, Cosachov, psychologist Carlos Díaz, nurse Ricardo Omar Almirón, general practitioner Pedro Pablo Di Spagna, head of nursing Mariano Perroni, and Swiss Medical coordinator Nancy Edith Forlini are all facing charges of "homicide with possible intent" – pursuing a course of action despite knowing it could lead to death. 

They face between eight and 25 years in prison.

An eighth defendant, a nurse, will be tried separately.

 The trial, taking place in the Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro, began on March 11 and is expected to continue through July.

– TIMES/AFP/PERFIL