Diego Maradona in his very last days was prostrate in his bed, crippled with edema, and appeared resigned, said a masseur from the Argentine football star, Thursday at the trial of the circumstances of his death in 2020.
Maradona “did not get out of bed, he did not want to eat, he did not want to wash, he did not want to take care of his hygiene,” said Nicolas Taffarel. He claimed to have alerted the star’s medical entourage at the time that he would have to be more present and come “every day”, as in an audio message broadcast to the audience.
Seven health professionals (doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, nurses) from this medical team have been on trial since mid-April in San Isidro (north of Buenos Aires) for potential negligence having contributed to Maradona’s death.
“I reported the situations that I saw in him, and I did not see any concrete action or rapid resolution,” continued the masseur, on the verge of tears as he mentioned Maradona, with whom he had established a close relationship. “He was bloated, his legs were swollen…” recalled Mr. Taffarel.
“The doctors told me to calm down, that these situations would pass. With nervousness, we trust, we tell ourselves that it will pass, that everything will be resolved. But it didn’t happen.”
On November 24, a day before Maradona’s death, Nicolas Taffarel said he asked him in vain to come and take some mates (infusions).
“He told me: ‘I don’t want anything, Taffita, that’s it.’ I asked him: ‘What do you mean, is that there?’ and he replied: ‘Nothing, that’s it’, quoting Maradona’s ambiguous words – ‘ya esta’ which can be understood as ‘it’s good’ or ‘it’s over’.
Maradona died the next day at age 60, of a cardiorespiratory crisis coupled with pulmonary edema, alone on his bed in a house in Tigre (north of Buenos Aires) rented for post-operative convalescence.
During the hearing, nurse Ricardo Almiron, one of the accused, also testified. Questioned by his lawyer, he declared that, the day before the death, he had checked the vital signs of Maradona, who “presented a slight tachycardia”.
Mr. Almiron said he saw him go to the toilet around 2 a.m. and left the house at 6:30 a.m. on November 25. “Before we left, I discreetly checked and he was resting well. He was breathing rhythmically, with good chest movements,” he said.
The timing aspect is key, because according to testimony from forensic doctors at the trial, death occurred after several hours of agony, even if the expert opinions do not agree on the duration. The death would have occurred between the morning and midday.
The defendants, who face up to 25 years in prison, deny any responsibility. Most of them hide behind their specialty, their segmented role, with no direct link to the clinical causes of death. The trial could stretch beyond August.
