Football star Diego Maradona should have been admitted to a rehabilitation centre rather than taken home following surgery he underwent in 2020, a doctor has testified at the trial of seven medical professionals accused of negligence in his death.
Maradona, who led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986, died on 25 November, 2020 while undergoing home hospitalisation on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. He was 60.
“He should have gone to a rehabilitation clinic … a more protected place for him,” Mario Alejandro Schiter, who treated Maradona for two decades, told the court.
“Knowing the patient, I would not have suggested home hospitalisation; he was not easy to manage, given my direct knowledge of having treated him at the worst moment of his life,” added Schiter, who treated Maradona for a drug addiction.
Seven medical professionals who made up Diego Maradona’s care team have been accused of culpable homicide over the events leading up to the former footballer’s death.
If convicted of a crime similar to involuntary manslaughter, they could face prison sentences in Argentina of between eight and 25 years.
According to the prosecution, the seven professionals charged in the negligence case — a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, doctors, and nurses — failed to provide adequate care, which may have led to his death.
Schiter said he was a consultant and that he had no decision-making authority, and that the clinic’s directors ultimately “came and told me they opted for home hospitalisation.”
According to some witnesses at the trial, the home where Maradona was taken lacked the necessary medical equipment.
Schiter, who also observed the autopsy on Maradona’s body, said “all the evidence suggests that there was a failure to provide modifiable care, which led to heart failure.
More than 100 witnesses, including doctors and family members, are expected to take the stand in the trial which started on March 11 and is expected to last four months.
