Maradona was in agony in the hours before his death

One of two forensic experts who performed Diego Maradona’s autopsy has told a court in Buenos Aires that the Argentinian football legend suffered ‘agony’ for at least 12 hours before he died.

The results of the autopsy were made public for the first time on Thursday amid the trial of seven doctors and nurses who treated him at his Buenos Aires home before his death in 2020. The trial started on Tuesday.

“The heart was completely covered in fat and blood clots, which indicate agony,” Carlos Cassinelli, director of forensic medicine at the Scientific Police Superintendency, told the court.

The autopsy concluded that Maradona died from acute pulmonary oedema secondary to congestive heart failure.

He was not a patient who should have been treated at home, Cassinelli added.

“This is a patient who had been collecting water over the days; that’s not acute. This was something that was foreseeable,” he said. “Any doctor examining a patient would find this.”

According to the prosecution, the accused professionals – a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, doctors, and nurses – who were caring for Maradona during his convalescence, failed to provide adequate medical care, which allegedly led to his death.