Eight health care professionals to stand trial in Diego Maradona’s death

Eight healthcare professionals will stand trial over the death of football great Diego Maradona in 2020, an Argentinian court has ruled.

The date of the proceedings has yet to be set, but they are unlikely to begin before next year, the court said Tuesday.

A medical board’s report previously given to prosecutors concluded that Maradona was in agony for more than 12 hours, did not receive adequate treatment and could still be alive if he had been properly hospitalized.

Three judges from an appeals court in San Isidro, outside Buenos Aires, confirmed the charges brought by prosecutors of homicide by negligence against the members of Maradona’s medical team.

Neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov are accused of failing in their care for Maradona. Maradona’s medical team also included psychologist Carlos Díaz, doctors Nancy Forlini and Pedro Di Spagna, nursing coordinator Mariano Perroni and nurses Ricardo Almirón and Dahiana Madrid.

Maradona, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986, died of a heart attack on 25 November 2020, at a rented residence outside Buenos Aires following brain surgery two weeks earlier. He was 60.

Maradona’s autopsy showed he died of natural causes.

One of Maradona’s daughters, Dalma, wrote on Instagram in Spanish: “Many times the process is painful and slow, but here we are and we will not stop until justice is done! Each one who stopped doing their job (at someone’s request or because of ineffectiveness) will be judged for that!”