Maradona death trial hears dispute over home care arrangements

The distinction between “hospitalisation” and home “care” took centre stage on Thursday during a new hearing in the trial over the 2020 death of Diego Maradona.

The trial sees seven healthcare professionals charged over the death of Maradona, who died in 2020 while recovering in a rented house on the outskirts of Buenos Aires following head surgery.

“My position was always the same: a serious home hospitalisation set-up,” psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov said, one of the main defendants in the trial and one of Maradona’s doctors at the time.

Cosachov said she never considered it appropriate for the former footballer to return home after surgery for a subdural haematoma, which he underwent on November 3, 2020.

According to the doctor, who spoke in court for the first time, the best option was for the 60-year-old patient to continue rehabilitation at a specialised centre, given his depression and alcohol addiction.

However, Maradona refused, leading to the alternative of renting a house in Tigre, 30 kilometres north of Buenos Aires, where he could recover.

“For me, as a psychiatrist, returning home alone was not an option. We then came up with this intermediate solution, which was a home hospitalisation arrangement,” she said.

“I requested a general physician, a neurologist, clinical tests, an ambulance for transfers, male nurses and specialists in problematic substance use,” she continued.

“I signed off convinced that all of that would be fulfilled. Why would I think that a company like Swiss Medical would not provide the best possible care for a patient of these characteristics?” she added, referring to the private healthcare company involved in the logistics.

For her part, Mariana Flichman, a former forensic doctor at Swiss Medical who was involved in the discharge paperwork, testified as a witness that the planned service consisted of accompaniment and nursing care, not a hospital-style structure.

“We neither knew nor intervened in the clinical condition. We simply took the clinical summary transmitted to us by the treating team,” she said.

“I trusted that everyone knew what they were signing,” she added.

The trial at the court in San Isidro, near Tigre, is examining both the appropriateness and the conditions of the home hospitalisation arrangement that ended with the death of the football icon on November 25, 2020, from cardiorespiratory arrest and pulmonary oedema.

Swiss Medical itself has not been charged, although among the defendants is Nancy Forlini, a doctor who worked for the company and acted as medical coordinator during Maradona’s recovery.

The seven defendants face charges of homicide with possible intent, meaning they were allegedly aware of the risk of death, and could face sentences of up to 25 years in prison.

The trial, which is holding two hearings per week, is expected to continue at least until July.

– TIMES/AFP