Diego Maradona’s death will be investigated by Argentinian police to decide whether it was a case of medical negligence, judicial sources have revealed.
Recordings from neighbourhood security cameras have been requested by three prosecutors working on the case.
Maradona died of ‘acute lung edema and chronic heart failure’, according to a preliminary autopsy report, in his sleep at noon while resting at his home in Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday.
His laywer, Marias Morla, had earlier called for an investigation into claims ambulances look more than half an hour to reach the football star’s home in response to a call on the day of his death.
Recordings from neighbourhood security cameras have been requested by three prosecutors working on the case. Pictured, Diego Maradona in 2018
Maradona died of ‘acute lung edema and chronic heart failure’, according to a preliminary autopsy report. He died in his sleep at noon while resting at his home in Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday. Pictured, Maradona’s coffin
The prosecutor’s office in Buenos Aires has opened a file entitled ‘Maradona, Diego. Determination of the cause of death.’
‘The case was initiated because he is a person who died at home and no one signed his death certificate. It does not mean there are suspicions or irregularities,’ a judicial source said, requesting to remain anonymous.
The 60-year-old Argentine football legend was receiving round-the-clock medical care at a house in a gated community where he was recuperating from surgery to remove a clot on his brain in early November.
‘You have to see if they did what they were supposed to do or if they relaxed,’ the family member told AFP.
Maradona was one of the most gifted sportsmen of all time, almost single-handedly inspiring Argentina to win the World Cup in Mexico in 1986
‘The nurse made a statement when the prosecutor appeared on the day of Diego’s death, then expanded her statement and finally went on television to say that what she said was forced on her, so there is some contradiction in her statement,’ the close relative said.
The prosecutor’s office is awaiting the results of toxicological tests on Maradona’s body.
The three prosecutors working on the case have requested the star’s medical records.
Another nurse caring for Maradona was likely the last person to see the star alive, at dawn on Wednesday, prosecutors said in a statement on Friday.
His daughters Dalma, 33, (left) and Giannina, 31, leave the Casa Rosada presidential palace at the end of the wake. Maradona also has three recognised sons, plus more claimed children
‘From his words, it could be established that he was the last person to see (Maradona) alive at approximately 6:30 in the morning,’ as the night shift at the star’s house was ending, it said.
The nurse, interviewed by prosecutors on Thursday, ‘referred to having found him resting in his bed, assuring that he was sleeping and breathing normally.’
Maradona’s nephew Johnny Herrera was previously believed to have been the last person to see Maradona, at 11:30pm on Tuesday.
The hearse carrying his casket to the cemetery was watched by thousands of mourners
Diego Maradona died on Wednesday from a heart attack, just two weeks after an emergency operation to remove a blood clot from his brain. The football legend was aged 60
Prosecutors said the nurse present in his house at the time of death told them that she had heard Maradona ‘moving around inside the room’ at 7:30am.
They said that at 12:17pm, ‘Maradona’s personal secretary requested medical assistance, and an ambulance from the company +VIDA was present at 12:28pm, according to film records from the San Andres neighborhood obtained by the prosecutor’s office.’
Several ambulances from other medical service providers arrived later.
Investigators have also established that Maradona’s personal doctor, Leopoldo Luque, had already made a 911 call at 12:16 pm, requesting an ambulance.