Maradona Trial Chaos: Kidney Test Mix-Up Disrupts Proceedings
The long, tangled quest to determine who failed Diego Maradona in his final days has been hit by another stunning twist.
The trial of seven healthcare workers accused of criminal negligence over the Argentina icon’s death has been suspended, after claims that key kidney tests presented in court did not belong to Maradona at all – but to his late father.
The hearings in Buenos Aires, which began a fresh run in April and were edging towards a conclusion, have now been adjourned until 27 August while the court orders a review of the evidence.
Tests said to be from the wrong Diego
At the heart of the latest controversy is a set of kidney test results used to assess Maradona’s condition in the days before his death in November 2020, when he was 60.
According to the defence, those results were not from the 1986 World Cup winner, but from his father, also named Diego Maradona, who died in 2015. If that claim is confirmed, it would strike at the credibility of the medical commission tasked with evaluating how the football legend was treated in his final days.
A nephrologist who testified on Tuesday is part of that commission. His appearance, meant to strengthen the case against the medical team, has instead opened a new line of attack.
Prosecution digs in
Prosecutors moved quickly to insist their case remains intact despite the alleged mix‑up.
“They (the defense) will not succeed in bringing down the trial,” prosecutor Patricio Ferrari said, dismissing suggestions that the error could derail proceedings.
One defence lawyer, representing nurse Nancy Forlini, also pushed back against the idea of blowing the case up and starting again. He said he would not seek a mistrial.
“I want this case to end so that my client knows her judicial fate,” he said, underlining how long the legal battle has already dragged on.
A trial already scarred by scandal
This is not the first time the process has been shaken.
The original trial, which ran for two and a half months, was dramatically annulled last year after revelations that one of the judges had taken part in a clandestine documentary about the case. That decision forced everything to restart from scratch.
The new trial had finally found its rhythm. Witnesses flowed, medical reports were dissected, and the end seemed in sight. Then the kidney tests were challenged, and the whole case juddered to a halt again.
What was at stake in Maradona’s final days
Maradona died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema – fluid in the lungs – at a rented house in the Buenos Aires suburb of Tigre, two weeks after surgery to remove a brain clot.
Prosecutors argue his medical team failed him in that vulnerable period, accusing seven professionals of providing inadequate care as he recovered. The defendants deny any criminal responsibility.
On Tuesday, before the suspension, the nephrologist told the court that Maradona’s kidney condition should have been an unmistakable alarm bell for his doctors.
He said the former Napoli and Argentina star should have been under “daily medical checkups, daily nursing care, blood tests and monitoring of his vital signs” – a level of follow‑up he believes was essential, given the state of his health.
That testimony fed directly into the prosecution’s narrative: that Maradona, one of football’s greatest talents, was left exposed when he most needed rigorous, structured care.
Commission under the microscope
Now the spotlight swings back on the medical commission itself.
If it is formally established that the kidney tests used in its analysis belonged to Maradona’s father, the body’s work could be heavily discredited. Its report has been highly critical of the care the player received, and has underpinned much of the prosecution’s argument.
A mistake of that magnitude would not only embarrass the commission. It would hand the defence fresh ammunition to challenge the entire framework on which the accusations rest.
The court will reconvene on 27 August. By then, Argentina expects answers: whose tests were really on the table, and who, if anyone, will ultimately be held responsible for the way Diego Maradona left this world.
