San Isidro:
The coordinator in charge of the nurses that treated Diego Maradona at his home denied any involvement in the football icon’s death when interviewed by Argentine prosecutors on Friday.
Mariano Perroni, 40, is the third of seven persons beneath investigation for manslaughter to testify in the case that has gripped the nation.
The 1986 World Cup-winning captain died of a heart attack last November at the age of 60, just weeks right after undergoing brain surgery for a blood clot.
“I told them I was in charge of nothing more than the (nurses’) arrival and departure times. I’m not responsible for any medical action,” Perroni told AFP right after leaving the public prosecutor’s workplace in San Isidro, on the outskirts of the capital Buenos Aires, exactly where he spent 3 hours answering queries.
“I don’t give medical advice, we relied on the decisions of the doctors in charge.”
Prosecutors opened an investigation right after a board of specialists seeking into Maradona’s death discovered he had received inadequate care and was abandoned to his fate for a “prolonged, agonizing period”.
“He was a sort of personnel coordinator, his job was to assemble the team of nurses to ensure they entered (the house) and completed their shifts,” the coordinator’s lawyer Miguel Angel Pierri told reporters.
“The treating doctors gave the medical directives. Perroni was never in the house, he doesn’t know Maradona, he was never in contact with him.”
Perroni’s interview came two days right after a lawyer for one of the nurses that attended to Maradona told reporters that medical doctors “killed Diego” by means of their negligence.
Nurses Dahiana Gisela Madrid, 36, and Ricardo Almiron, 37 — two of the last persons to see Maradona alive — stated this week they have been following the orders of his treating medical doctors.
They each admit to getting failed to carry out routine checks on Maradona just just before he died.
‘Disinterested and indifferent’
Prosecutors say Perroni had “full knowledge of what was done and what was not done, particularly in terms of the management of nurses for the patient.”
They also accuse him of getting demonstrated “disinterested and indifferent behavior given the urgent situation.”
Perroni’s defense is that his part was merely administrative and involved collecting the nurses’ reports and worksheets filled out when they changed shifts.
He claims to have passed on these documents to Nancy Forlini, 52, Maradona’s home healthcare coordinator who is also beneath investigation and will be interviewed on Monday.
Both Almiron and Madrid told prosecutors earlier this week that the residence rented for Maradona did not include the gear vital to treat a patient suffering from heart illness.
Both stated they had not been told he suffered from heart illness and had been instructed not to disturb him even though he rested.
Maradona had battled cocaine and alcohol addictions.
The former Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli star was suffering from liver, kidney and cardiovascular problems when he died.
Psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, 35, psychologist Carlos Diaz, 29, and neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque are to be questioned next week.
Two of Maradona’s children blame Luque for their father’s deteriorating situation right after the brain operation.
A panel of 20 healthcare specialists convened by Argentina’s public prosecutor stated last month that Maradona’s therapy was rife with “deficiencies and irregularities” and the healthcare group had left his survival “to fate”.
If discovered guilty, the seven, who are barred from leaving the nation, could face in between eight and 25 years in prison.
Maradona is an idol to millions of Argentines right after he inspired the South American nation to only their second World Cup triumph in 1986.
()