Buenos Aires, Argentina:
A nurse accused of neglect in Diego Maradona’s death told Argentine prosecutors on Monday that he was following orders “not to disturb” the football icon although he slept.
Ricardo Almiron, 37, was Maradona’s nighttime carer and was one of the last persons to see the World Cup winning captain alive.
He is suspected of lying when he claimed Maradona was sleeping and breathing typically hours ahead of he died. An autopsy revealed he was dying at that time.
Almiron is one of seven persons beneath investigation for manslaughter soon after a board of specialists hunting into Maradona’s death identified he had received inadequate care and was abandoned to his fate for a “prolonged, agonizing period”.
The football legend died of a heart attack last November at the age of 60, just weeks soon after undergoing brain surgery for a blood clot.
Almiron arrived just soon after midday (1500 GMT) with his lawyer Franco Chiarelli at the San Isidro public prosecutor’s workplace on the outskirts of the capital Buenos Aires.
Speaking to journalists soon after the interview, Chiarelli stated Almiron “always treated Maradona as a patient with a complex psychiatric” situation but was by no means told about “an issue related to heart disease.”
“He was told by his superiors not to disturb the patient. My client had the wisdom to carry out his tasks without the patient feeling encroached upon, which was something he had to deal with the entire time he was there,” Chiarelli added.
An investigation was opened following a complaint filed by two of Maradona’s 5 children against neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, whom they blame for their father’s deteriorating situation soon after the operation.
A panel of 20 health-related specialists convened by Argentina’s public prosecutor stated last month that Maradona’s therapy was rife with “deficiencies and irregularities” and the health-related group had left his survival “to fate”.
The panel concluded he “would have had a better chance of survival” with sufficient therapy in an suitable health-related facility.
Instead, he died in his bed in a rented home in an exclusive Buenos Aires neighborhood, exactly where he was getting home care.
“I did my best”
The other individuals beneath investigation are Maradona’s psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, 35, psychologist Carlos Diaz, 29, nurse Dahiana Madrid, 36, nursing coordinator Mariano Perroni, 40, and health-related coordinator Nancy Forlini, 52.
Over the next two weeks, they will seem one by one ahead of prosecutors, accompanied by defense lawyers, to reply to the allegations against them.
The hearings, postponed from last month due to a spike in coronavirus situations in Argentina, will finish with Luque, 39, on June 28.
A judge will then choose no matter if the matter need to go to trial in a method anticipated to last months, even years.
All seven accused are prohibited from leaving the nation, and threat in between eight and 25 years in prison if convicted.
Luque has repeatedly defended his actions, saying “I did my best. I offered Diego everything I could: some things he accepted, others not.”
The medical professional is in search of a dismissal of the case, and says Maradona had been depressed in his final days.
“I know that the (coronavirus) quarantine hit him very hard,” Luque has stated.
Maradona had battled cocaine and alcohol addictions throughout his life.
The former Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli star was suffering from liver, kidney and cardiovascular problems when he died.
Maradona is an idol to millions of Argentines soon after he inspired the South American nation to only their second World Cup triumph in 1986.
His death shocked fans about the world, and tens of thousands queued to file previous his coffin, draped in the Argentine flag, at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires amid 3 days of national mourning.
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