Expert disputes account of Maradona's final hours during testimony

Diego Maradona's death was "sudden" and "instantaneous," a medical expert called by the defence told a court on Tuesday, contradicting the prosecution's theory in the trial over the Argentine football legend's death in 2020.

Seven healthcare professionals are accused of homicide with possible intent over Maradona's death while he was receiving home care following brain surgery. The appropriateness and conditions of that care are also under scrutiny.

Prosecutors allege that the defendants ignored signs that Maradona was suffering an agonising decline lasting up to 12 hours while recovering at the home in Tigre, north of Buenos Aires. ‘El Diez’ died from cardiorespiratory arrest and pulmonary oedema.

But expert Pablo Ferrari, who carried out an analysis of Maradona's death in 2024, disagreed with the prosecution's account and said it was even possible that the former footballer had died from Covid-19.

"The agonising period lasted a few minutes to a few hours at most ... it was short. I cannot state academically that he suffered hours of agony. It was sudden," the forensic doctor told the court in San Isidro, north of Buenos Aires, doubting previous testimony.

Ferrari, the final witness to testify in the trial, said the pulmonary oedema caused Maradona to suffocate and that the former footballer should therefore have shown signs of a struggle.

"A patient who is suffocating becomes desperate. There were no injuries indicating a struggle here, so his agony must have lasted only a few minutes," he said. "It was an instantaneous death," he added.

The expert also said it could not be "ruled out that he died from Covid-19," describing the failure to carry out a swab test for the virus as a "methodological error."

Maradona died on November 25, 2020, the year the coronavirus pandemic erupted around the world.

Ferrari also contradicted the findings of the medical board that investigated Maradona's death, whose report identified liver, kidney and heart problems as contributing factors to the fatal outcome.

Among the laboratory tests he examined, Ferrari said he found "no indicators of kidney dysfunction" and "not the slightest indication of a heart problem."

He did find deterioration in liver-function indicators between 2018 and 2020, but said these remained "within a margin of tolerance that did not require emergency medical intervention."

Ferrari's testimony brought the witness stage of the lengthy trial, which began in April, to a close.

Final arguments by the 13 parties involved in the case are due to begin on October 8, with a verdict expected in November.

– TIMES/AFP