Diego Maradona trial latest: Seven medics face up to 25 years in prison for Argentine football icon’s death
Diego Maradona died aged 60 after a heart attack in 2020, while recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain weeks earlier
A trial is set to begin for seven medics accused of negligence in their treatment of Argentine footballing icon Diego Maradona, who died in 2020.
Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest footballers the world has ever seen, died aged 60 after suffering a heart attack in his sleep in November 2020.
Neurosurgeon and family doctor Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov are among the medics facing trial on negligence charges, which could see them imprisoned for up to 25 years.
They are accused of failing to properly care for the Argentine legend in his Buenos Aires home and of failing to adequately hospitalise him. An independent report by 20 medical professionals found that he could still be alive if he had been treated more effectively.
Maradona is a hero in Argentina, which was swept by an outpouring of emotion after his death. Mourners clashed with police outside the presidential palace as huge crowds tried to view his body lying in state.
His career peaked in the 1980s when he played for Italian club Napoli and led Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986. But his life was marred by a long-term cocaine addiction which ledto him being banned from football twice in 1991 and 1994.
Maradona insisted on leaving hospital, personal doctor says
Diego Maradona’s personal doctor, the neurologist Leopoldo Luque, claims that the former footballer insisted on being discharged from hospital after his brain surgery.
The 44-year-old carried out surgery on Maradona’s brain blood clot weeks before the Argentine’s death.
But he denies accusations that his actions are partly responsible for Maradona’s death.
“The death occurred unexpectedly, suddenly, during sleeping hours, without offering us any time,” he said.
In pictures: Maradona's doctors and family attend court
Maradona’s medics are set to go on trial over the Argentinian football legend’s death. His daughter claims there was a cover-up
Seven doctors and nurses will go on trial on Monday accused of playing a role in the death of Argentine footballing icon Diego Maradona.
Neurosurgeon and family doctor Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov are among the medical professionals facing trial on negligence charges.
Maradona died aged 60 on 25 November 2020 after suffering a cardiac arrest while sleeping in his home of Dique Luján, Buenos Aires Province.
Three days of national mourning were declared after the 1986 World Cup winner’s death. Huge crowds of mourners queued for more than a kilometre to see his body lie in state in the presidential palace, some clashing with police in emotional scenes as they tried to close the palace.
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Maradona’s medics to go on trial over Argentine football legend’s death
Maradona living in 'theatre of horror'
Deputy Attorney General of San Isidro, Patricio Ferrari opened proceedings describing Maradona’s home where he got treatment from 2020 in Tigre as a “theatre of horror”.
“It was a reckless, deficient, unprecedented home hospitalisation.
“There was no type of control in that home, no type of protocol in a theater of horror that was that house where Diego Armando Maradona died, where nobody did what they had to do,” he said.
Model of Maradona's home hospital described as a theatre of horrors shown to court
Maradona died two weeks after surgery
Maradona was found dead two weeks after going under the knife, in a rented house in an exclusive Buenos Aires neighborhood where he was brought after being discharged from hospital.
He was found to have died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema, a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs.
The passing of the star of the 1986 World Cup plunged Argentina into mourning in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tens of thousands of people queued to bid farewell to the former Boca Juniors and Napoli striker as his body lay in state at the presidential palace.