Buenos Aires (AFP)

Diego Maradona's surgeon, targeted by an investigation for manslaughter after the death of the football idol from a heart attack, defended himself on Sunday by evoking with great emotion his efforts to help "an unmanageable patient ".

The police raided the office and home of Dr. Leopoldo Luque on Sunday looking for evidence of possible professional negligence, according to the public prosecutor's office in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires.

The investigation was sparked by statements from Dalma, Gianinna and Jana, three daughters from Maradona, about how the former footballer's heart problem was managed at his residence in Tigre, north of the Argentine capital.

"Do you want to know what I'm responsible for? For loving him, for taking care of him, for extending his life, for improving him until the end", said Dr Luque at a conference of television press, between two sobs.

Dr Luque, 39, considered himself "a friend" of Maradona and saw him "as a father, not a patient".

He does not know why there was no heart attack defibrillator at his residence in Tigre, and he did indicate that he was not his attending physician.

"I am a neurosurgeon," said Dr Luque, who operated on Maradona for a brain hematoma on November 3.

"I am the person who took care of him (since the operation). I am proud of everything I have done. I have nothing to hide. I am at the disposal of justice," added Dr. Luque.

Maradona died on November 25 from a heart attack in bed.

He was "unmanageable", according to Dr. Luque.

"He should have gone to a rehabilitation center (after his operation). He didn't want to, and he didn't want a therapeutic companion either."

- No defibrillator, no ambulance -

According to Dr Luque, Diego "was very sad, he wanted to be alone, and it wasn't because he didn't love his daughters, his family, or his entourage (...) He was courageous".

"The clinic had recommended that he go elsewhere to be hospitalized, but the family decided otherwise. His daughters signed his discharge from the hospital," said a member of Maradona's family, under cover of anonymity.

The day after his death, lawyer Matias Morla, friend of Maradona, denounced Thursday the fact "that the ambulance took more than half an hour to reach the house where the 10 was" and warned that he would go "to the end".

"A psychiatrist had asked that there is always an ambulance in front of his house," also revealed Dr. Luque.

"I don't know who is responsible for the fact that there was no ambulance (that day)," he added.

The 1986 world champion died Wednesday at the age of 60 from "secondary acute pulmonary edema and exacerbated chronic heart failure".

No complaint has yet been filed.

"The investigation was opened because it is about a deceased person in her home and no one signed her death certificate. This does not mean that there are suspicions of irregularities", a -was indicated from a judicial source, on condition of anonymity.

The San Isidro prosecutor's office is awaiting the results of toxicological tests.

He demanded the medical file as well as the recordings of the cameras of the district where Diego Maradona lived his last days.

The 1986 world champion appeared very weak on October 30, the date of his last appearance, on his 60th birthday, to lead the training of his players at the club Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata.

"That day, I did not find him well," also said Dr. Luque.

© 2020 AFP