Health insurance company admits Maradona test mix-up in trial

An Argentine health insurance company admitted that medical tests presented at the trial over the death of late football icon Diego Maradona were in fact those of his father, also called Diego.

In a letter seen by AFP on Aug 24, Swiss Medical admitted that tests it released to a medical commission investigating Maradona’s death “remained mistakenly filed under the name Diego Armando Maradona” when in fact they belonged to his late father, Diego Salustiano Maradona.

The older Maradona died in 2015, five years before the man considered one of football’s greatest ever players.

The blunder was spotted last week by a lawyer defending one of the seven healthcare professionals on trial over Maradona’s death in November 2020 at age 60.

Maradona died of heart failure and acute pulmonary oedema �" a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs �" at a rented home in the Buenos Aires suburb of Tigre two weeks after undergoing surgery for a brain clot.

His medical team is accused of providing grossly inadequate care in the lead-up to his death. It denies the charges.

His kidney health has been a core focus of the final stages of the trial, with a nephrologist testifying that his doctors should have paid more attention to the issue.