One of Diego Maradona's daughters tearfully accused the medical team that treated her father of wrongdoing on Tuesday, telling the court that in certain situations "no-one was taking responsibility" for the conditions of her father’s home hospitalisation.
Dalma Maradona, the eldest of his daughters, gave evidence during the 17th hearing of the trial into the iconic playmaker’s death, which sees seven people charged with homicide with possible intent, a legal classification for healthcare professionals that implies they were aware their actions could have led to the patient’s death.
All seven defendants maintain their innocence, although they have adopted differing defence strategies.
An eighth defendant, a nurse, will face a separate jury trial. All eight could receive prison sentences of up to 25 years if convicted.
Maradona died on November 25, 2020, from a cardiorespiratory arrest and acute pulmonary oedema while recovering from brain surgery at a house in Tigre, around 50 kilometres north of the capital.
Speaking through tears, Dalma Maradona said Tuesday the healthcare provider and the lead doctors had promised "a serious home hospitalisation, with equipment, nurses, therapeutic companions and an ambulance stationed outside 24 hours a day."
"With hindsight, we realised that wasn't the case," the football legend's daughter told the court in San Isidro, about 30 kilometres north of Buenos Aires.
‘Step aside’
Dalma said she had personally urged neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, one of the lead defendants, to step aside if he felt unable to manage her father's care.
"I wish he had stepped aside. I wish he had had the decency to step aside. But that didn't happen," she told the court.
Dalma said she recalled telling Luque that if the situation was beyond him or if he felt Maradona was a difficult patient, "that possibility existed.”
"He told me: 'I can do it, I'm up to the task'," she added.
Dalma also said she and her sister Gianinna had been concerned about their father's condition for at least a year before his death, describing him as "very slow," often mumbling and difficult to understand.
She also stressed that Maradona was a cardiac patient who required lifelong medication.
According to her testimony, there were also disagreements within the medical team during the period of home care. She said psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and the Swiss Medical healthcare provider gave conflicting accounts about who was responsible for different aspects of Maradona's treatment, leading to several meetings aimed at clarifying responsibilities.
Dalma also accused members of the medical team of limiting contact between Maradona and his family while insisting his condition was stable.
"They said everything was fine when it wasn't," she told the court, adding that relatives were often discouraged from seeing him as part of a strategy that allegedly involved leaving the patient alone rather than overwhelming him.
Appropriate care?
The trial has raised questions both about whether home hospitalisation was an appropriate course of treatment and about the conditions under which it was carried out.
"If we had known it was going to unfold the way it did, it would never have been an option. If they had told us there would be no ambulance, it wouldn't have happened, because given my father's condition that was essential," Dalma said.
During the hearing, prosecutors also played audio recordings and displayed WhatsApp messages from Luque in which he made disparaging remarks about Maradona's daughters, prompting Dalma to accuse him of presenting a "double face" to the family.
Earlier, Gabriel Charovsky, a former intensive care specialist and head of authorisations at Swiss Medical, testified that Maradona's transfer from Clínica Olivos to the house in Tigre had been "quite rapid," adding another point of scrutiny over the circumstances of the home hospitalisation.
Dalma was the third and final daughter of the football icon to testify in the case surrounding her father's death.
Her sister Gianinna, 37, gave evidence first and was even more forceful in her criticism of the medical team, followed by her half-sister Jana, 30.
"There isn't a day that I don't miss him," Dalma told the court.
"He didn't want to die. It makes me angry that they want to blame him for his own death."``
Another of the accused, Nancy Forlini, who coordinated the home care, also testified earlier Tuesday for about an hour.
She also identified Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov as the ones responsible for requesting services during the Argentine icon's stay.
During her statement, Forlini explained that as a coordinator, she only responded to requests from the treating physicians. "Doctor Luque requested a weekly medical visit and a neurology consultation," the defendant noted.
Forlini said she never received a request from Cosachov for home care services, and that Maradona's discharge order from the clinic where he had undergone surgery did not request any type of medical equipment.
In previous hearings, several expert witnesses stated that such equipment, for instance a defibrillator, was indispensable.
"Imagine, he was a VIP patient; anything they had requested would have been authorised," Forlini emphasised.
Court proceedings are being held twice a week. The trial began in April and is expected to continue at least until July.
– TIMES/AFP/PERFIL
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