Signs that read in Spanish "Justice for God," cover a wall where police stand guard outside the court where the medical team that treated the late soccer star Diego Maradona is on trial facing charges of homicide by negligence, in San Isidro, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Republished April 08, 2025 - 6:32 PM
Original Publication Date April 08, 2025 - 4:41 PM
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Diego Maradona's ex-wife and a doctor testified Tuesday at the trial of seven medical professionals accused of negligence in the death of the soccer great, questioning the decision to take him home following surgery in 2020 rather than admitting him to a rehabilitation center.
Maradona, who led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986, died on Nov. 25, 2020 while undergoing home hospitalization on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. He was 60.
“He should have gone to a rehabilitation clinic ... a more protected place for him,” Mario Alejandro Schiter, who treated Maradona for two decades, told the court.
“Knowing the patient, I would not have suggested home hospitalization; he was not easy to manage, given my direct knowledge of having treated him at the worst moment of his life," added Schiter, who treated Maradona for a drug addiction.
According to the prosecution, the seven professionals charged in the negligence case — a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, doctors, and nurses — failed to provide adequate care, which may have led to his death.
“They lied to all of us, to all the family, it is a shame,” said Veronica Ojeda, who was married to Maradona from 2005 to 2014.
Ojeda said doctors advised the family to move Maradona out of the hospital and that is why they did it, although “the house was not ready for it."
She said she was assured that Maradona was going to be taken care of but has now questioned the level of care.
“Diego was alone, nobody was there, just the bodyguard,” added Ojeda, who said she visited Maradona three times, including a time seven days before his death.
Schiter said he was a consultant and that he had no decision-making authority, and that the clinic’s directors ultimately “came and told me they opted for home hospitalization.”
According to some witnesses at the trial, the home where Maradona was taken lacked the necessary medical equipment.
Schiter, who also observed the autopsy on Maradona’s body, said “all the evidence suggests that there was a failure to provide modifiable care, which led to heart failure.”
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
News from © The Associated Press, 2025