Diego Maradona Death Inquiry: Outline

An Argentine judge on Thursday inflict an international travel ban on seven health professionals who cared for Diego Maradona in the days before his death. Judge Orlando Diaz issued the order after prosecutors deemed the defendants posed a flight risk. Neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, psychologists Carlos Diaz, Dahiana Madrid and Ricardo Almiron, doctor Nancy Forlini and nurse coordinator Mariano Perroni were last week charged with involuntary manslaughter.

They have been summoned to provide testimony to prosecutors next week and face up to 25 years in prison if found guilty.

“The public prosecutor’s office considers these restrictive measures to be sufficient and adequate in order to neutralize any … threat to the natural course of the investigation,” the news agency quoted Diaz as saying.

Maradona died of a heart attack aged 60 last November, less than a month after undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain.

Investigators have said they are trying to determine whether there was negligence on the part of doctors and medical staff.

A panel of doctors appointed by prosecutors to probe the circumstances of Maradona’s death described his medical team as “deficient”, “reckless” and “indifferent”, according to Telam.

An initial autopsy found that Maradona had died from “acute pulmonary edema secondary to exacerbated chronic heart failure with dilated cardiomyopathy”.

Results of a second autopsy, published in late December by the San Isidro public prosecutor, revealed Maradona was suffering from problems related to his kidneys, heart and lungs.

Following his brain surgery on November 3, the former attacking playmaker received treatment for “abstinence”, Luque told reporters at the time.