The heart failure that caused Diego Maradona’s death five years ago resulted from a “neglect of care” in the final week of the footballing icon’s life, one of the doctors who took part in his autopsy alleged on Tuesday.
Dr Mario Schiter made the statement during a criminal trial investigating the circumstances surrounding the legend’s death in November 2020. Maradona died of pulmonary oedema brought on by heart failure while receiving home care following neurosurgery.
Seven healthcare professionals – including doctors, nurses, a psychiatrist and a psychologist – are facing charges of homicide with dolo eventual, a legal concept meaning the accused were aware their actions could lead to death.
An eighth defendant – a female nurse – will be tried separately.
Maradona was “a patient with latent heart failure and, due to a neglect of care regarding modifiable factors (habits or medication), developed heart failure,” which in turn caused the oedema, said Schiter.
An intensive care physician, Schiter treated Maradona during his hospitalisation in Cuba in the early 2000s. He took part in the autopsy at the request of the family and testified on Tuesday as a witness in the trial, which is taking place in San Isidro, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires close to Tigre, where the star passed away.
He told the court he had advised the family to transfer Maradona to a rehabilitation centre following the neurosurgical procedure, carried out weeks before his death.
Taking him “from a high-complexity clinic to a private home, knowing the patient, seemed risky to me,” said the doctor, noting that Maradona at times failed to comply with medical treatments.
Had home care been the only option, “I would have opted to equip the place as if it were a cardioprotected unit,” he added. That would have included a defibrillator, an electrocardiograph, laboratory analysis tools, oxygen supply and non-invasive ventilation equipment.
Multiple witnesses have testified during the trial – which began on March 11 – that none of this equipment was available at the house where the former Albiceleste captain died.
Further testimony was expected later on Tuesday from Verónica Ojeda, Maradona’s partner from 2005 to 2014 and the mother of his youngest son, 12-year-old Diego Fernando.
The trial is expected to continue at least until July, with dozens of witnesses scheduled to give evidence. The accused face prison sentences ranging from eight to 25 years.
– TIMES/AFP
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