A Buenos Aires province Federal Courthouse confirmed that eight health professionals indicted for Diego Maradona’s death will go to trial, charged with gross negligence manslaughter.

The decision was made by the Appeals and Guarantees Court of San Isidro and among the eight accused are the deceased player’s former neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque and his former psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov.

Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at the age of 60, at his residence located in Dique Luján, Tigre, due to a cardiac collapse that caused pulmonary edema. Days earlier, he had been hospitalized for anemia and depression. At the time of his death, he was convalescing after having undergone surgery to correct a subdural hematoma in his head.

1) Leopoldo Luciano Luque (41):

A neurosurgeon, prosecutors consider him to be the main defendant as he was Maradona’s primary care doctor. He signed papers discharging Maradona from the Olivos Clinic to take him home.

What is he accused of:

• “In his capacity as primary care doctor, he avoided treating and/or at least providing proper medical attention to Maradona.”
• “He did not carry out adequate follow-ups with controls and cardiological tests”.
• “He systematically ignored and belittled the symptoms and signs compatible with heart failure that were reported to him.”
• “Faced with the warnings about the patient’s state regarding his swelling and the certain possibility that he was undergoing acute pulmonary edema, he refrained from acting” and disregarded “clear signs that announced the risk of death.” 

In addition to manslaughter, they accused him of “using an altered private document” to request Maradona’s medical record using a forged signature of his patient.

2) Agustina Cosachov (37):

She was Maradona’s psychiatrist and another of the main defendants in the case. She was in charge of deciding the psychiatric medication he was taking and also signed the discharge from the Olivos Clinic.

What is she accused of:

• “She had full knowledge of his cardiac pathology […] and did not take the appropriate precautions.”
• They blame her for “not establishing boundaries for the patient.”
• “She did not ensure the proper administration of medication and psychotropics […], disregarding the adverse effects”
• She was responsible for the “explicit removal of therapeutic companions”
• “She failed to personally take care of the patient’s resuscitation.”

In addition, she was charged with “ideological falsehood” (including or provoking the inclusion of false statements into an official document), because she is credited with issuing a mental health certificate for Maradona without actually visiting him.

3) Carlos Ángel “Charly” Díaz (30):

He was Maradona’s psychologist. He was brought onto the medical staff by Maradona’s lawyer and representative Matías Morla. He is considered to be one of the members of the “attending medical team.”

What is he accused of:

• “He failed to hospitalize Maradona in a proper rehabilitation center.”
• “He progressively meddled in the professional field of action of psychiatrist Cosachov, and even devoted himself to making decisions that up until then was not under his purview.”
• They accuse him of “manipulating” the family by “suggesting that everything that was happening was the result of Maradona’s free and spontaneous decision-making.”
• “He did nothing other than hide the information regarding the true health condition of the deceased.”
• They attribute to him a “blatant indifference in the face of the emergency situation and the possibility of death.”

4) Nancy Edith Forlini (53):

Physician in charge of the Home Care Management of the Swiss Medical company. She was the healthcare provider company’s coordinator for Maradona’s home hospitalization.

What is she accused of:

• “She failed to comply with the minimum duties of her position, which, in accordance with the patient’s condition, included providing the place with nursing staff specialized in mental health, therapeutic monitoring, a nutritionist, and the proper equipment for advanced CPR, lab tests and electrocardiogram”.
• “She failed to assess if the house met the minimum conditions for a patient with Maradona’s physical limitations”
• “In full knowledge of the deficient nursing service […] she failed to take any measure, thus being functional to the other defendants’ behaviors that resulted in the aforementioned fatal result, which inevitably she had to have considered given her position”.

5) Mariano Ariel Perroni (41):

He was the nursing coordinator for the “Medidom” company, a subcontractor that provided nurses and doctors for Maradona’s home hospitalization.

What is he accused of:

• “He filled in the forms of the corresponding care and failed to do it fully and adequately, deliberately adding information that was not consistent with Maradona’s real condition and the medical attention he was receiving.”
• “He showed disinterested and indifferent behavior in the face of the emergency situation.”

8) Pedro Pablo Di Spagna (49):

He was the clinical doctor hired to monitor Maradona at the house in Tigre. He was in the chat group where nurses and doctors reported news about the patient.

What is he accused of:

• “In his capacity as clinical doctor appointed to monitor the patient’s treatment during his home hospitalization, he failed to comply with his duties since he refrained from regularly monitoring the patient’s health status.”
• “He appeared in that capacity only on two occasions”: on November 12, 2020, and on November 18 when he endorsed “an alleged refusal of the patient to be monitored, thus increasing the victim’s life risk despite his role “.

Two nurses are also set to go to trial:  39-year-old Ricardo Omar Almirón (night and early-morning shift) and 38-year-old Dahiana Gisela Madrid (morning and afternoon shift). 

What they are accused of: 

• “They failed to treat Maradona on November 24 and 25, 2020, despite being aware of his delicate situation and that such an omission would most likely lead to the fatal outcome that finally occurred.”
• “They carried out check-ups and/or examinations that were deficient, either because they did not do them properly or because they did not even enter the room.”
• “They failed to notice the signs and symptoms compatible with heart failure that were already evident and detectable in the previous days.”
• “They were the last [people] who had direct contact with the victim when the agonizing period prior to death had already begun, dated at least 12 hours before his death.”