A new medical report has come to light on the death of Diego Armando Maradona, which casts doubt on the criminal negligence case brought against eight medical workers involved in the death of the former Argentine soccer player. The evidence, provided by forensic doctor Pablo Ferrari, appears a month before the defendants are tried for homicide, on June 4.
The forensic expert carried out the study at the request of one of the main defendants, Maradona’s neurosurgeon, Leopoldo Luque, with the aim of challenging the 2021 medical examination. In the letter, the Prosecutor’s Office held Luque and other doctors responsible for the death of the Argentine star, since they considered his death avoidable.
The defendants have always denied any irregularity in the treatment of Maradona, who died of a heart attack in 2020 while recovering from brain surgery. Even so, prosecutors charged the eight medical workers with homicide, an accusation that can carry prison sentences of between eight and 25 years.
The report by forensic doctor Pablo Ferrari, published yesterday, ruled that Maradona’s rapid and erratic heartbeat was of natural origin or derived from an “external” factor, possibly from a drug such as cocaine, a substance that the former player consumed.
The recent findings contradict those of a 20-member medical panel appointed to investigate Maradona’s death. That report, from 2021, accused Maradona’s medical team of acting in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner, leaving the footballer in agony and without help for more than 12 hours before his death.
However, the Ferrari report maintained that the arrhythmia could not have triggered agony for more than “a few minutes or, at most, a couple of hours,” contrary to what the 2021 reports indicate. Vadim Mischanchuk, the Defense lawyer representing Maradona’s psychiatrist, Agustina Cosachov, said: “This marks a radical turn in the case. The bill goes from a cardiac event that lasts many days to one that lasts minutes.”
Despite the new medical report, the Prosecutor’s Office criticized the coroner’s document for having been prepared “hastily” and accused Ferrari of “neglecting four years of evidence in favor of a minimal portion of evidence offered by the defense.” Likewise, prosecutors declared: “There is no twist in the case.”
