Maradona trial: Daughter says doctors staged care to isolate him

The home hospitalisation and treatment installed to care for Diego Maradona before he died was a “set-up” to keep him “in a dark, ugly and lonely place,” his daughter alleged on Tuesday during the trial in Argentina over the football legend’s death.

The courts in Argentina are seeking to determine whether the medical team who cared for Maradona after a neurosurgery weeks before his death on November 25, 2020, bear any responsibility.

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

Maradona died of heart failure and acute pulmonary oedema – a condition in which fluid builds up in the lungs – just weeks after undergoing surgery. Doctors at the Clínica Olivos performed successful neurosurgery on the former footballer two weeks before he died.

The trial, which began in March, has focused on the quality of the home-based care provided to the late legendary football star.

“It was a set-up, a staged performance they put on for us so they could continue doing what they were so intent on – keeping my dad in a dark, ugly and lonely place,” said Gianinna Maradona, 35, speaking before a court in San Isidro, north of Buenos Aires.

In her nearly seven-hour testimony, Gianinna did not explain what her carers' motives might have been for holding this alleged theatre at her father's home in Tigre, near San Isidro, where the football star died of pulmonary oedema in his 60s.

At Thursday's hearing an audio message was played that psychologist Carlos Diaz, an expert in addictions who is one of the accused, sent to psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, another defendant, days before Maradona’s death.

The message suggested legal rather than medical concerns: “Here, the strategic objective is to pass the buck to the family … It's a way of covering ourselves,” the psychologist says. 

Gianinna responded that it gave her ‘anger and impotence’ to hear these comments. “I trusted that this person was going to be able to help my dad ... but they talked about money and passing the buck in case something happened,” she sobbed.

Towards the end of the day, she recounted her process after her father's death: “I wanted to die, to go with him … I was able to leave with psychiatric help to live again without it hurting me,” Gianinna said, pointing the finger at Maradona's business administrators.

Parallel to this case, Dalma and Gianinna Maradona are pursuing another legal case against the administrators, whom they accuse of stealing millions of dollars from their father through business scams.

During Tuesday’s hearing, another recording was played of a meeting held in early November 2020, in which members of the medical team, family and relatives and others in Maradona’s inner circle decided on the home hospitalisation.

Gianinna told the court that during that meeting, held at the Clínica Olivos, “they convinced everyone that Dad needed to be cared for at home and we agreed.” 

She said the decision was based on medical advice from neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, Cosachov and Díaz – three of the seven defendants in the case.

She singled out Luque, her father’s primary physician, saying he “had all the responsibility,” because he not only managed the treatment but “assembled the entire team” with the involvement of Maradona’s former lawyer and agent, Matías Morla. 

She also accused Cosachov and Díaz of negligence.

In nearly seven hours of testimony, Gianinna – the third of Maradona’s five children – did not elaborate on what she believed the carers’ motives may have been for maintaining what she described as this charade.

Her lawyer Fernando Burlando said at the start of the trial that there had been a “financial interest” behind the decision to care for Maradona at home, though he did not specify what it was. He also described the footballer’s death from pulmonary oedema at his house in Tigre, near San Isidro, as “murder.”

“I think it’s very unfair, that whole conversation, everything that never happened, what was promised and never delivered. The people responsible who spoke there and assured things that then didn’t come to pass. I feel it was horrible manipulation,” she said. 

Gianinna broke down in tears several times during her testimony, saying: “It caused me great pain. I couldn’t help crying. Everything that was promised and never delivered… it was horrible manipulation.”

“I feel so much rage. I think it was a vile piece of theatre. I wish I could turn back time and kick them all out,” she added, speaking through tears.

Several doctors testified at the start of the trial that the room where Maradona died “was very dirty, very untidy” for a person who had just undergone surgery, and that it lacked a defibrillator and other essential medical equipment.

Gianinna was accompanied at court by her son Benjamín, her sister Dalma, and her mother, Maradona’s former wife Claudia Villafañe. Aunt and nephew sat holding each other, visibly moved during the testimony.

The late footballer’s medical team – including Luque, Cosachov, Díaz, and four others – are facing charges of homicide with possible intent (dolo eventual), meaning they pursued a course of action despite knowing it could lead to death. They face between eight and 25 years in prison.

Also on trial are Dr Nancy Forlini, a coordinator for the private health provider Swiss Medical; nursing supervisor Mariano Perroni, of the company Medidom; general practitioner Pedro Di Spagna; and nurse Ricardo Almirón. 

An eighth defendant, psychiatric nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried separately before a jury.

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

– TIMES/AFP/NA