Health company admits Maradona test mix-up in trial

BUENOS AIRES: An Argentine health insurance company, Swiss Medical, admitted on Monday that medical tests presented at the trial over the death of late football icon Diego Maradona were actually those of his father, also named Diego. The mix-up occurred when tests filed under Diego Armando Maradona's name were mistakenly identified as belonging to his deceased father, Diego Salustiano Maradona. The older Maradona passed away in 2015, five years prior to the football legend's demise.

The blunder was detected last week by a lawyer representing one of the seven healthcare professionals on trial for Maradona's death in November 2020 at the age of 60. The deceased football star succumbed to heart failure and acute pulmonary edema, a condition characterized by fluid accumulation in the lungs, following a brain clot surgery two weeks earlier. He was found deceased at a rented home in the Buenos Aires suburb of Tigre.

Maradona's medical team has been accused of providing inadequate care in the period leading up to his death. The trial denies these allegations. However, his kidney health became a focal point in the latter stages of the proceedings, with a nephrologist testifying that his doctors should have paid more attention to this issue. It was later revealed that his analysis was based on incorrect test results due to the aforementioned mix-up.

Consequently, the proceedings were suspended for a week, resulting in further embarrassment for the court after a previous trial collapsed last year due to a conflict of interest involving one of the judges.

The ongoing trial, which commenced in April, is set to resume on Thursday and is anticipated to continue until at least September.