The room where Diego Maradona died "was very dirty" for a "recently operated" person and had no defibrillator in it, a doctor testified Thursday during a trial investigating the star’s death four years ago.
Seven healthcare professionals are in the dock for the trial taking place in San Isidro, charged with fatal negligence in late footballer’s death.
"The house was very dirty, very messy, especially the room. There was no kind of order or at least basic cleanliness, to be able to have a newly operated person" stay there, said Colin Campbell, a doctor who was a neighbour of the star and who was summoned to assist him when it became clear Maradona wasn’t responding.
Campbell said that on the night Maradona died, November 25, 2020, he entered the house in a Tigre gated community to find a nurse attempting to resuscitate the 60-year-old former footballer.
On relieving the nurse, she noticed that the football legend's body temperature and jaw stiffness indicated that "he had had no vital signs for a long time."
"More than an hour or two, for sure," Campbell told the judges at the court in San Isidro, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires.
The doctor was called that day at 12.26pm by security personnel from the gated community because the star had “lost consciousness.”
Juan Carlos Pinto, another doctor who arrived with the first ambulance, confirmed Campbell's version by declaring that the patient was already dead on arrival.
Pinto said he was the one who told Maradona's ex-wife, Claudia Villafañe, and his daughters, who were already present.
"He had been dead for more than two hours," he said.
"There was nothing that could help with resuscitation, there was no oxygen, there were no oxygen tubes, there was no defibrillator," Pinto said, confirming Campbell's version of events.
The police officers who have testified so far said there were "no medical elements" in the room.
Maradona, who lived long periods of excess during a hectic life, died of a cardiorespiratory crisis at his home in Tigre, where he had been hospitalised at home following neurosurgery.
Seven health professionals (doctors, nurses, a psychiatrist and a psychologist) are charged with intentional homicide, which implies that they were aware that their actions could cause death.
The trial will last at least until July and some 120 witnesses are expected to testify. Prosecutors have not yet said who will testify at the next hearing, scheduled for Tuesday.
The defendants, who defend their innocence, risk sentences of between eight and 25 years in prison.
– TIMES/AFP
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