MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maradona's medical team to be tried for manslaughter

Maradona died at the age of 60 on Nov. 25, 2020.

A Court of Appeals and Guarantees in the district of San Isidro in the province of Buenos Aires upheld this week a decision to try for manslaughter the healthcare team involved in the death of football legend Diego Armando Maradona, it was reported Friday in Buenos Aires.

Maradona passed away in November 2020 at his home following brain surgery. The prosecution claims the former star should have not been discharged from the clinic, given his condition. It is also argued that he was neglected during his intended recovery.

All defendants have been charged with ”simple homicide (manslaughter) with malice aforethought“ and are believed to have had some degree of involvement in the so-called ”home hospitalization“ in a house where he eventually died.

The accused are brain surgeon Leopoldo Luciano Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, psychologists Carlos Ángel Díaz, Nancy Edith Forlini, nurses Gisella Dahiana Madrid, Ricardo Omar Almirón, and Mariano Perroni, and general practitioner Pedro Pablo Di Spagna.

As per the Argentine Penal Code, manslaughter with malice aforethought carries a penalty of between 8 and 25 years of imprisonment.

Maradona's children, Dalma, Giannina, Jana, Diego Fernando, and Diego Junior, decided to press charges due to the irregularities surrounding the death of the soccer star, whose care was supervised by Luque, his lawyer, and the medical staff he had appointed.

Maradona died at the age of 60 on Nov. 25, 2020, and the autopsy determined that his death was the result of ”acute pulmonary edema secondary to exacerbated chronic heart failure“ in addition to a ”dilated cardiomyopathy”.

The former player, who also had alcohol and drug addiction problems, had been admitted to a clinic in the city of La Plata on Nov. 2, 2020, due to anemia and dehydration, and a day later he was referred to a sanatorium in Olivos, Buenos Aires, where he underwent surgery for a subdural hematoma.

On Nov. 11 he was discharged and moved to a house in Tigre (a suburb northwest of Buenos Aires), where he died two weeks later.

Maradona's wake was held at the Casa Rosada despite gathering restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.