Image Source: El Periodico
Over a year after the death of Diego Maradona, eight medical professionals will be tried for criminal negligence. After a medical panel concluded that Maradona’s treatment was plagued with “deficiencies and abnormalities,” a court-ordered a culpable murder trial.
At the age of 60, Maradona passed away in Buenos Aires after a heart attack in November 2020. After having surgery to remove a cerebral blood clot earlier that month, he was recuperating at home.
A few days following his passing, Argentine prosecutors opened an inquiry into the medical professionals who treated him. Maradona’s medical team acted “inappropriately, deficiently, and recklessly,” according to the 20-person panel of experts tasked with investigating his death last year. The football player “would have had a better chance of survival” with adequate care received in a suitable medical facility, the court found in its decision.
Leopoldo Luque, the neurosurgeon and personal physician of Diego Maradona, as well as a psychiatrist, a psychologist, two medical professionals, two nursing staff members, and their supervisor, are all accused. However, each of them has rejected being to blame for his demise.
The legal definition of homicide, which is based on negligence committed, knowing that it would result in death, will be used in the trial of all eight defendants. According to Argentina’s penal law, the offense carries a punishment of eight to 25 years in prison. However, the trial has not yet been given a date.
Maradona was “in a condition of helplessness” at the time of his passing, according to Mario Baudry, an attorney representing one of Maradona’s sons, who spoke to Reuters.
Two of Maradona’s daughters’ complaints served as the impetus for legal action. In addition, concerns were expressed regarding how their father was handled following the brain surgery.
Dr. Luque sobbed during a tearful press appearance in November 2020, claiming he had done everything in his power to save the life of a friend.
The doctor once responded to reporters by saying: “You ask what my responsibilities are. For caring for him, loving him, extending his life, and enhancing it until the very end.” The physician claimed to have attempted “everything, up to the impossible.”
One of the best football players to ever play the game is widely regarded as being Diego Maradona. When Argentina won the World Cup in 1986, he served as captain and scored the infamous “Hand of God” goal against England in the quarterfinals. Diego Maradona battled cocaine addiction during the second half of his career and was suspended for 15 months in 1991 after testing positive for the substance.
Hundreds of people stood in line for hours to pass by his casket at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires after learning of his passing. His death also deeply affected his native Argentina.
Even the most ardent Diego Maradona follower would admit that his body had suffered from years of addiction and that his grueling brain surgery had had crippling effects. However, there was a perception in Argentina that the greatest player to ever play the game had been taken from us too soon, at the age of just 60.
The subsequent conclusions by the medical panel were incredibly damning as the need for explanations intensified with each revelation regarding his treatment.
Thousands of fans wept as they passed Maradona’s flag-draped casket at the presidential palace over three days of national mourning. The outpouring of grief and reverence that followed his passing is still fresh in people’s eyes and minds.
They had to bid him go far sooner than they had intended. Nevertheless, these accusations would at least give them clarification on the precise circumstances surrounding the passing of one of Argentina’s finest sons.
Opinions expressed by California Gazette contributors are their own.
