No ‘medical items’ around Maradona deathbed, policeman tells court

A policeman who was among the first on the scene of Diego Maradona’s death four years ago, told a court Tuesday he saw no “medical items” in the room where the football legend was receiving post-operative care at home.

Officer Lucas Farias testified in the trial of seven health professionals accused of homicide for their alleged role in what prosecutors have described as the “horror theater” of Maradona’s final days.

Farias said he “didn’t see medical items in the room. I didn’t see serums that I think should be part of home hospitalization,” referring to an intravenous drip.

Farias was one of four police officers to give evidence Tuesday, a week after the trial opened in San Isidro in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires.

“What first caught my attention about Diego Maradona was his face-up position with an abdomen so swollen it seemed about to explode,” said Farias. 

“I was shocked to see Maradona in that state, I never thought I’d find myself faced with that image.” 

Maradona died on November 25, 2020, aged 60, while recovering at home from brain surgery for a blood clot, after decades battling cocaine and alcohol addictions.  

It was determined he died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema, a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs.

On trial are a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a medical coordinator, a nursing coordinator, a doctor and a night nurse accused of being criminally negligent in the care they provided to the footballer in his final days.

Prosecutors allege the footballer was abandoned to his fate for a “prolonged, agonizing period” before his death.

The defendants face prison terms of between eight and 25 years if convicted of “homicide with possible intent” — pursuing a course of action despite knowing it can cause death.

Nearly 120 witnesses are expected to testify in the long-delayed trial expected to run until July.