An interim medical report on the death of football legend Diego Maradona has revealed he was “not monitored properly and was not taking prescribed heart medication”.
Prosecutors investigating his death last month at the age of just 60 after an operation to remove a blood clot on the brain also added that nursing staff assigned to look after him appeared to have “seriously failed in their duties”.
A file for possible manslaughter has already been opened into the former Barcelona and Napoli star’s death at his home in Buenos Aires twelve days ago and his neurosurgeon Dr Leopolodo Luque has been under investigation.
It said: “No one was properly looking after the patient. Every new element that we obtain during the investigation reinforce the theory that the aftercare was poorly administered to Maradona.”
It added damningly: “We are looking at the possibility that a crime has been committed and that manslaughter has been committed.”
The Argentine criminal code carries a jail term of between one and five years for medical professionals who cause the death of a patient through negligence.
Last weekend officers raided his home and clinic and took away files and phones as well as seizing paperwork from the clinic where Maradona had his operation on November 3.
Key to the investigation are the medical staff who signed him off and discharged Maradona from the Olivos clinic, allowing him to return home.
He later collapsed and died despite seeming to be recovering well.
According to a leaked copy of the interim report investigators have ruled that the “domestic medical assistance following the operation was totally disorganised”.
Besides Dr Luque, the clinical director of Olivos Pablo Dimitroff is also expected to be questioned about the care given to the player who was infamous in England for his hand of God goal against the Three Lions at the 1986 Mexico World Cup.
Investigating judge Orlando Diaz has ruled against formally arresting both men and placing them in custody as he does not believe they are at risk of fleeing Argentina.
But the leaked report added of Dr Luque: “He doted on the footballer and wanted to go down in history as the doctor who had saved Maradona and the patient would blindly confide in him.”
In an emotional news conference held after police searched his home, Dr Luque revealed Maradona was battling addiction problems when he died.
He claimed the footballer had issues with pills and booze, adding: “He punished himself in a way I wasn’t going to allow, not as a doctor but as a friend.”
The 39-year-old said: “You want to know what I am responsible for? For having loved him, for having taken care of him, for having extended his life, for having improved it to the end.”
It has also emerged that it was not in fact Dr Luque who carried out the operation on Maradona, but another surgeon and he was merely part of the clinical team.
Dr Luque had already infuriated Maradona’s family after sharing a picture of the pair in hospital after the surgery two weeks prior to his death, which he apologised for despite insisting he had the football stars permission.
“I thought it was an image that would erase the other, that Diego had left the day of the match against Patronato. Because it really is fantastic now,” Luque said at the time, according to Clarin.
Maradona’s lawyer Matias Morla has also demanded a top-level probe into the emergency response to the retired footballer’s death as his daughters have pointed blame at Dr Luque.
He has questioned why it took an ambulance so long to reach Maradona, branding it a “criminal idiocy”.
It also emerged the nurse who was with him had admitted she lied about an early-morning check-up, revealing she had never checked up on him as she had initially said.
Daughters Dalma and Giannina have told police they suspect the medication their father was given was not appropriate.
A source close to the Maradona family said: “We want to know if Diego was abandoned in the hours before he died. Where was Dr Luque? Why was he not with him?”
Yesterday Maradona’s brother Hugo appeared on Italian TV and said: “We are waiting for the full autopsy results and the body of my brother will tell the truth but I can tell you that whoever has wronged him will pay.”
The football star had a glittering career playing for clubs such as Barcelona, Napoli and Sevilla.
He won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986, before retiring from professional in 1997.
