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Psychiatrist tells Maradona trial he should have remained in a clinic
🇨🇱 Chile /Crime & Justice

Psychiatrist tells Maradona trial he should have remained in a clinic

From Cooperativa · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • Psychiatrist José Luis Covelli testified that Diego Maradona had confusion linked to alcohol withdrawal shortly before his death and should have remained in institutional care.
  • Covelli said Maradona showed psychomotor agitation, impulsivity, irritability and attempts to escape after treatment for a subdural hematoma.
  • A 2021 medical panel found the care provided by the doctors responsible for Maradona’s health to be inadequate, deficient and reckless, with life-threatening signs ignored.

Diego Maradona should not have been discharged from medical care, psychiatrist José Luis Covelli told the trial examining the football legend’s death. Covelli said Maradona had a “confusional syndrome related to alcohol withdrawal” and needed to remain in a clinic.

From a psychopathological point of view, he was not a patient in a condition to be discharged.

— José Luis CovelliThe psychiatrist testified about Maradona’s medical condition before his death.

“From a psychopathological point of view, he was not a patient in a condition to be discharged,” Covelli said. After Maradona’s final operation, he added, the former footballer “should have continued his monitoring and treatment in institutional care.”

He should have continued his monitoring and treatment in institutional care.

— José Luis CovelliCovelli described the care Maradona should have received after his final operation.

Covelli, a specialist in legal medicine and psychiatry, said the condition was reflected in behavior including psychomotor agitation, impulsivity, irritability and attempts to escape. Maradona had undergone surgery for a subdural hematoma earlier in November 2020 and died on Nov. 25 while receiving treatment at home.

Inadequate, deficient and reckless.

— 2021 medical panelThe panel used these words to characterize the conduct of the doctors responsible for Maradona’s health.

Covelli served on the interdisciplinary medical panel established at the request of the courts after Maradona’s death. The panel included official experts in legal medicine, cardiology, psychiatry, toxicology, nephrology and hepatology, along with experts for the defense and the plaintiffs. In 2021, it concluded that the doctors’ conduct had been “inadequate, deficient and reckless” and that “the signs of life-threatening risk presented by the patient were ignored.”

The signs of life-threatening risk presented by the patient were ignored.

— 2021 medical panelThe panel’s conclusion about the warning signs before Maradona’s death.
About this summary

Originally published by Cooperativa in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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