An Argentinian court last week declared a mistrial in the case of seven health professionals accused of negligence in the death of soccer legend Diego Maradona, the latest dramatic twist in a trial that has captivated the nation for more than two months.
Thursday’s decision came after one of the three judges overseeing the trial stepped down over criticism surrounding her participation in a forthcoming documentary about the case.
The Guardian reports that Judge Julieta Makintach’s withdrawal compelled her two fellow judges to either appoint a new colleague in her place or restart the entire case from scratch.
The judges decided on the latter, effectively turning the clock back on all proceedings in the case that accuses Maradona’s medical team of failing to provide adequate care for the soccer star in his final days.
Maradona died in November 2020, aged 60, just two weeks after his release from hospital where he had undergone surgery for a bleed on his brain.
His medical team – four doctors, two nurses and a psychologist – is being charged with culpable homicide, with possible intent, for having allowed him to recover at home.
According to prosecutors, the medical attention Maradona received during his home care was “reckless, deficient” and “unprecedented”, with his family describing in gruesome detail his “abandonment” death.
The football legend died amid the smell of “urine and faeces”, his family’s lawyer said, accusing the doctors of negligence and a cover-up, calling it a “mafia”.
The medical professionals have denied the charges. They face prison sentences of between eight and 25 years.
Agonising
Details on Maradona’s condition before his demise revealed that he had suffered an agonising 12-hour death in a dark room, struggling to breathe after his heart swelled to double its size.
Fernando Burlando, the lawyer who represents Maradona’s daughters, Dalma and Gianinna, said: “He died amid the smell of urine and faeces… and had been deeply sedated by doctors.”
He claimed the medics purposefully isolated him from his loved ones, reports Daily Mail.
Burlando also alleged Maradona’s phone number was changed constantly, and that his daughters’ numbers were saved under different names so that he would not recognise them when they tried to call.
“Maradona was abandoned, isolated, and delivered to the worst possible end,” he said.
It was revealed earlier in the trial that 4.5 litres of fluid had accumulated in his organs due to an acute pulmonary oedema brought on by heart failure.
Forensic expert Carlos Mauricio Casinelli showed pictures of brain clots, a “sign of agony”, and claimed his heart weighed 503 grams – more than a football.
Casinelli claimed that “his torture would have been easy to spot for days”.
“The heart was completely covered in fat and blood clots, which indicate agony,” he said.
“This is a patient who had been collecting water over the days; that’s not acute. This was something that was foreseeable. Any doctor examining a patient would find this.
“The water he had in his abdomen, in both pleurae, and in his heart, isn’t normal. It doesn’t form in a day or an hour. It’s been forming over several days. It could have been from the time he was discharged (from hospital) until he died.
“This is likely to take at least 10 days, given the addition of cirrhosis and myocarditis.”
Maradona had struggled with drug addiction, obesity and alcoholism for decades, and reportedly came close to death in 2000 and 2004.
But prosecutors suspect that were it not for the negligence of his doctors, his death could have been avoided.
His cause of death was officially listed as “acute pulmonary oedema secondary to exacerbated chronic heart failure”.
New trial
After Makintach’s involvement in the documentary series was revealed, prosecutors, defence attorneys and members of Maradona’s family called for the trial to be annulled. The case had already gone through 21 sessions since it began in March.
Now, the Chamber of Appeals and Guarantees in Criminal Matters of San Isidro in Buenos Aires will hold a new draw to appoint a fresh panel of judges who will conduct the trial from the beginning.
The issue is being widely treated in Argentina as an “international embarrassment” for the country’s judiciary.
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