A policeman who was among the first on the scene of Diego Maradona's death four years ago, told a court Tuesday he saw no "medical items" in the room where the late football legend received post-operative care.
Lucas Farías, an officer in the Buenos Aires Province Police Force, testified in the trial of seven health professionals accused of homicide for their alleged role in what prosecutors have described as the "horror theatre" of Maradona's final days.
Farías said he "didn't see medical items in the room. I didn't see serums that I think should be part of home hospitalisation" care, referring to an intravenous drip.
The deputy commissioner was one of four police officers to give evidence Tuesday, a week after the trial opened in San Isidro in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires.
"What first caught my attention about Diego Maradona was his face-up position with an abdomen so swollen it seemed about to explode," said Farías. "I was shocked to see Maradona in that state, I never thought I'd find myself faced with that image."
He also said that "there was disorder” in Maradona's room, although at another point during testimony he said he considered the mess to be "typical of a house."
During Tuesday’s hearing, a video of the scene of the then-Gimnasia y Esgrima coach’s rented home, including his bedroom, was shown.
The images – taken after Maradona’s death – show him with a swollen abdomen, dressed in a black T-shirt and wearing Gimnasia shorts.
For defence lawyer Vadim Muschanchuk, who is representing one of the accused, the hearing was “positive” because ‘both the videos and the witness statements corroborate that the swelling in Maradona's abdomen dates from at least four hours after his death and after resuscitation manoeuvres had been carried out.”
Lucas Borge, who at the time of Maradona’s death was chief of the Tigre police station close to where Maradona died, said that when he saw the late footballer’s body he noticed "a very swollen belly.”
Maradona died on November 25, 2020, aged 60, while recovering at home from brain surgery for a blood clot, after decades battling cocaine and alcohol addictions.
It was determined he died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema, a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs.
On trial are a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a medical coordinator, a nursing coordinator, a doctor and a night nurse accused of being criminally negligent in the care they provided to the footballer in his final days.
Prosecutors allege the footballer was abandoned to his fate for a "prolonged, agonising period" before his death.
The defendants face prison terms of between eight and 25 years if convicted of "homicide with possible intent" – pursuing a course of action despite knowing it can cause death.
Nearly 120 witnesses are expected to testify in the long-delayed trial expected to run until July.
– TIMES/AFP
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