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The prosecution in Buenos Aires is investigating the death of soccer icon Diego Maradona after reports that ambulances took more than half an hour to reach the soccer star’s home in response to an emergency call.
People gather to mourn the death of soccer legend Diego Maradona outside the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 25, 2020. (Reuters)
Judicial sources in Argentina have said that prosecutors are investigating the circumstances surrounding Diego Maradona’s death and whether it may have involved medical malpractice.
“There are already irregularities,” a close relative told AFP.
Maradona’s lawyer, Matías Morla, had previously called for an investigation into allegations that ambulances took more than half an hour to reach the soccer star’s home in response to an emergency call on the day of his death.
A preliminary autopsy report established that Maradona died in his sleep at noon Wednesday of “acute lung edema and chronic heart failure.”
The Buenos Aires Prosecutor’s Office opened a file entitled “Maradona, Diego. Determination of cause of death.”
“The case began because it is about a person who died at home and no one signed his death certificate. It does not mean that there are suspicions or irregularities,” said a judicial source, who asked to remain anonymous.
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Medical care 24 hours
The 60-year-old Argentine soccer legend was receiving 24-hour medical care at a home in a gated community in Tigre, north of Buenos Aires, where he was recovering from surgery to remove a clot in his brain in early November.
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“We have to see if they did what they were supposed to do or if they relaxed,” the relative told AFP.
“The nurse made a statement when the prosecutor appeared on the day of Diego’s death, then expanded her statement and finally went on television to say that what she said was forced on her, so there is a certain contradiction in her statement,” said the close relative. said.
The Prosecutor’s Office is awaiting the results of the toxicological tests on Maradona’s body.
All three prosecutors working on the case have requested the star’s medical records, as well as footage from neighborhood security cameras.
Another nurse caring for Maradona was likely the last person to see the star alive, at dawn Wednesday, prosecutors said in a statement Friday.
“From his words, it was established that he was the last person to see [Maradona] I live at approximately 6:30 in the morning, “when the night shift ended at the star’s house, he said.
The nurse, interviewed by prosecutors on Thursday, “reported finding him resting in his bed, ensuring that he was sleeping and breathing normally.”
Maradona’s nephew, Johnny Herrera, was previously believed to have been the last person to see Maradona, at 11:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said the nurse present at his home at the time of his death told them that she had heard Maradona “move inside the room” at 7:30 am.
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They said that at 12:17 pm, “Maradona’s personal secretary requested medical assistance, and at 12:28 pm an ambulance from the company + VIDA was present, according to film records of the San Andrés neighborhood obtained by the Prosecutor’s Office.”
Later several ambulances arrived from other medical providers.
Investigators have also established that Maradona’s personal physician, Leopoldo Luque, had already made a 911 call at 12:16 p.m., requesting an ambulance.
Source: AFP
