BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine police searched the home and office of one of Diego Maradona’s doctors on Sunday, taking away medical records as part of investigations into the death of the 60-year-old soccer star that caused a wave of grief across the country.
Neurologist Leopoldo Luque, Diego Maradona’s former personal doctor, talks with journalists at his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020. (Fabian Marelli/La Nacion via AP)
Neurologist Leopoldo Luque told reporters after the searches that he had given investigators all of the records of his treatment of Maradona, as well as computers, hard drives and cellphones.
Weeping at times, he insisted he defended his treatment of the troubled soccer star, who died Wednesday of a heart attack following a Nov. 3 brain operation.
“I know what I did. I know how I did it…. I am absolutely sure that what I did the best for Diego, the best I could.”
Luque said he was not Maradona’s chief physician, but part of a medical team.
Court investigators have been taking declarations from Maradona’s relatives, according to a statement from the San Isidro prosecutor’s office, which is overseeing a probe into the medical attention Maradona received prior to his death, which caused an enormous outpouring of emotion across Argentina and among soccer fans worldwide.
Police stand guard the entrance of Dr. Leopoldo Luque’s practice in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Leo La Valle)
Tens of thousands of weeping fans lined up to file past Maradona’s coffin, with lay in state at the presidential palace, before his burial on Thursday.
Maradona had suffered a series of medical problems, some due to excesses of drugs and alcohol. He was reportedly near death in 2000 and 2004.
Luque said he was a difficult patient and had kicked the doctor out of his house several times.
“Diego did what he wanted,” Luque said. “Diego needed help. There was no way of getting through to him.”
