In Argentina, seven medical personnel have been charged with homicide in the death of soccer legend Diego Maradona.
In November 2020, the Argentine great died of heart failure, the same month he underwent successful surgery for a subdural hematoma, also known as a brain blood clot.
Prosecutors received a damning investigation into his death earlier this month, and they have now requested that those accused not be allowed to leave the country.
Prosecutors say Maradona’s medical team “violated the duties that each one was in charge of” as a result of the investigation, which “led to the fatal outcome of the patient that, otherwise, could have been avoided,” according to court documents.
After being chastised by medical investigators, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov are among those charged.
Luque revealed his professional relationship with Maradona to prosecutors in November. “There’s no evidence that I was careless,” he said.
Cosachov’s lawyer told CNN in December that his client “had used her best judgment from a medical standpoint.”
Representatives for Cosachov and Luque, as well as the other individuals charged, could not be reached immediately by CNN.
The accused will begin testifying on May 31 and, if convicted, could face a sentence of eight to twenty-five years in prison.
Maradona was in agony for 12 hours before his death, according to a report from the medical board appointed to investigate his death.
A medical board concluded in its report, which was part of the judicial investigation into this death, that the 60-year-old “did not have full use of his mental faculties” and could have had “a better chance of survival” if he had been admitted to a healthcare facility.
Investigators were looking into why the former footballer was treated at a house in his final days and whether his mental state allowed him to make his own decisions. They also looked into his heart condition’s lack of treatment, among other things.
The board said it is possible to infer “that the medical team viewed fully and completely the possible death of the patient, were completely indifferent to the possibility and didn’t change their behavior or treatment plan, sustaining the damaging omissions laid out previously, leaving the health of the patient ‘to chance.'”
