Dalma Maradona, daughter of the legendary Argentine footballer Diego Maradona, accused the doctors who treated her father of deceiving her and her siblings during a court hearing on alleged negligence related to Maradona's death.
Dalma, the eldest of Maradona's five children, testified in the trial of the doctors and nurses accused of negligence and failing to provide adequate care. She claimed that the doctors misled them by promising a home-care setup that never actually materialized.
"They promised us a home hospitalization that never happened. They made us believe in something that didn't exist and deceived us in the most brutal way," Dalma said.
She described her father's room as unsuitable for medical care, calling it "disgusting" and saying it "smelled like urine." She added, "There was a portable toilet. There was a panel on the windows to block out light. There was nothing. It was a horrible place. The kitchen was disgusting."
Dalma recalled the doctors had said Maradona didn't want to stay in a hospital, so they recommended home care. They had promised 24-hour nursing for monitoring blood pressure and administering medication, but she insisted her father never received proper treatment.
Describing the moment she first saw her father's body, Dalma said:
"I walked into the room; he was very swollen. He was covered with a sheet, but you could see the swelling. I threw myself on him because I thought he would wake up. His face was very swollen—his hands, face, stomach, body, everything…"
She claimed Maradona's death could have been prevented with proper care, saying, "I miss him every day of my life. The most painful part is knowing this could have been avoided if they (the doctors) had done their jobs. It still hurts to think of the mistreatment he received, which I didn't know about. If I had known how it would turn out, I would have handled things differently—but I never imagined this."
Diego Maradona died on November 25, 2020, in Tigre, Buenos Aires Province, due to "acute pulmonary edema secondary to chronic heart failure."
Following his death, seven people—including his neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov—were charged with contributing to his death.
