Doctor: Mistake to send Diego Maradona home after surgery

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A doctor testified Tuesday at the trial of seven medical professionals accused of negligence in the death of Diego Maradona that the soccer star should have been admitted to a rehabilitation center rather than taken home following surgery he underwent in 2020.

Maradona, who led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986, died on Nov. 25, 2020, while undergoing home hospitalization on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. He was 60.

“He should have gone to a rehabilitation clinic … a more protected place for him,” Mario Alejandro Schiter, who treated Maradona for two decades, told the court.

“Knowing the patient, I would not have suggested home hospitalization; he was not easy to manage, given my direct knowledge of having treated him at the worst moment of his life,” added Schiter, who treated Maradona for a drug addiction.

According to the prosecution, the seven professionals charged in the negligence case — a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, doctors, and nurses — failed to provide adequate care, which may have led to his death.

Schiter said he was a consultant and that he had no decision-making authority, and that the clinic’s directors ultimately “came and told me they opted for home hospitalization.”

According to some witnesses at the trial, the home where Maradona was taken lacked the necessary medical equipment.

Schiter, who also observed the autopsy on Maradona’s body, said “all the evidence suggests that there was a failure to provide modifiable care, which led to heart failure.”