MARADONA clinic ICU chief advised against home care before death | OneFootball

The intensive care chief at the last clinic to treat Diego Maradona told the court, in the trial over his death, that he had advised against continuing home care three weeks before he died.

According to El Periódico Mediterráneo, Fernando Villarejo said Clínica Olivos, where Maradona had surgery for a subdural haematoma on three November 2020, recommended a prolonged stay in a rehabilitation centre with multidisciplinary support.

He said he disagreed with the decision by the player’s doctors and relatives to move his recovery to a house on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Maradona was found dead on 25 November 2020, 14 days after discharge, from acute pulmonary oedema in a patient with chronic cardiomyopathy exacerbated by heart failure, as established by the autopsy.

Villarejo and Sebastián Nani, a cardiologist at Clínica Olivos who also testified, said Maradona’s entourage complicated hospital care by failing to observe Covid-19 protocols. Nani added he did not treat Maradona directly but described the period as extremely stressful.

Lawyers for Leopoldo Luque, Maradona’s personal doctor and the main defendant, pressed both witnesses on Maradona’s cardiac health, and they replied it was good for his age.

In his own appearance on Thursday, the seventh since the trial began, Luque rejected claims from cardiologist Oscar Franco that he had ignored a recommendation for a specific cardiac examination. He said doctors who testify are under pressure and that he will defend himself using his reading of scientific literature.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo