A medical report on soccer legend Maradona’s death aims to undercut homicide case against medics

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A medical expert’s report into the demise of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona injected uncertainty Monday into the legal negligence case introduced towards eight medical staff concerned in his case a month earlier than they’re set to face trial for murder.

A forensic knowledgeable performed the research on the behest of one of many predominant defendants, Maradona’s neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, in an effort to problem the 2021 medical examination that held Luque and different medical doctors answerable for what it described because the soccer star’s in any other case avoidable demise. The defendants have denied any violations or irregularities in Maradona’s remedy.

Maradona, well-known for main Argentina to victory within the 1986 World Cup and again to the ultimate 4 years later, died from a coronary heart assault in 2020 whereas recovering from mind surgical procedure.

His demise at age 60 surprised and devastated a era of soccer followers and despatched all of Argentina into mourning. Inside days, the nation grew to become consumed by questions on his closing, perplexing hours, a frenzy of suspicion that intensified as law enforcement officials raided his medical doctors’ properties and places of work and Maradona’s household pressed the judiciary to intervene.

Prosecutors in the end charged the eight medical staff with murder — a critical accusation that leaves open the potential of presumed intent and carries potential jail sentences from eight to 25 years. The trial is ready to begin June 4.

Health worker Pablo Ferrari’s report, launched Monday, concluded that Maradona’s fast, erratic heartbeat was both of pure origin or stemmed from an “exterior” issue, probably a drug like cocaine that Maradona was recognized to have abused previously. Ferrari mentioned he couldn’t do a toxicology report based mostly on Maradona’s inadequate urine pattern.

The findings contradict these of a 20-member medical panel appointed to research Maradona’s demise.

That 2021 report accused Maradona’s medical staff of performing in an “inappropriate, poor and reckless method,” leaving the soccer participant in agony and with out assist for greater than 12 hours earlier than his demise.

Ferrari’s report disputed the severity of that episode, contending the arrhythmia couldn’t have triggered agony for greater than “a couple of minutes or at most a couple of hours.”

“This marks a radical flip within the case,” Vadim Mischanchuk, the protection lawyer representing Maradona’s psychiatrist, Agustina Cosachov, informed native media. “The account goes from being a cardiac occasion that lasts many days to at least one that lasts minutes.”

The prosecutor’s workplace criticized the knowledgeable’s report as swiftly cobbled collectively in 72 hours and accused Ferrari of neglecting 4 years of proof in favor of “a minimal slice of proof supplied by the protection.”

“There is no such thing as a twist within the case,” prosecutors mentioned.