Major commissioner Mauricio Cassinelli, an expert of Diego Armando Maradona’s autopsy, declared Thursday in front of the court that, at the time of his death, the popular idol had a heart that weighed more than double the normal size, presented a generalized edema, from head to toe, and signs of a long agony that could have extended for up to 12 hours.
Cassinelli, who at that time served as Director of Legal Medicine of the Superintendence of the Scientific Police, said Maradona presented an accumulation of four and a half liters of water in the body, three of which were in the abdomen.
In addition, he said that the water he found in the body is not formed in one day, in two or in four, but that “it is something that progresses.” Although he clarified that he could not specify the exact time, he spoke of “a minimum of ten days.”
In the heart of Maradona, a dilated myocardiopathy was discovered, a heart muscle disease that causes the heart cavities to enlarge and stretch.
The expert specified in his testimony that Maradona’s heart weighed twice a normal heart and found “cross clots” that are only formed when the patient is going through a period of agony.
Although he could not determine the exact time that the agony of the former soccer player lasted, he said that “from 0.30 that he did not receive controls, which said he could have had an agony of up to 12 hours.”
The witness made his statement relying on explicit images of the autopsy that were exhibited before a full room.
“All fat,” said the expert, pointing to Maradona’s lung, and then showed “sick kidneys”, which defined as signs of nephroangioesclerosis.
“He also had liver cirrhosis,” said the expert exhibiting an image of the liver.
Jana Maradona, who on Thursday returned to the trial after offering her statement last Tuesday, retired from the audience before the exhibition of her father’s autopsy images.
The autopsy concluded that Maradona died on November 25, 2020 as a result of acute lung edema secondary to reacted chronic heart failure.
Acute secondary lung edema is a medical emergency that occurs when there is a fluid accumulation in the lungs and may be due to heart failure or damage to the lungs.
From the forensic exam, the expert estimated the death time between 9.00 and 12.00.
The other autopsy
At the request of the defense of the accused, the expert Pablo Ferrari, an official expert of the Supreme Court of the Province of Buenos Aires, carried out another forensic report last year that contradicts the one presented this Thursday.
In his 25 -page report, he assured that Maradona had not received medical or pharmacological assistance linked to a coronary pathology and estimated the agonizing picture “in minutes or, at most, a few hours.”
The San Isidro Prosecutor’s Office had questioned that document when considering that the expertise was made without a forensic team, in 72 hours and based on evidence of the defense of the neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, Astro’s header, and who would have insisted on home care instead of entry to a health clinic.
Another of the defendants is the psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, who is attributed not to have administered Maradona’s medication correctly, having disregarded the side effects and falsified a certificate of a visit to the deceased former soccer player.
The psychoanalyst Carlos Díaz are also on the bench; the doctor and coordinator of the Private Health Company Swiss Medical, Nancy Forlini; the clinical doctor Pedro Di Spagna; the nursing coordinator Mariano Perroni, and the nurse Ricardo Almirón.