Diego Maradona’s final words before his death aged 60 revealed with Argentine telling his nephew ‘I don’t feel well’
DIEGO MARADONA’S last words before he died were: “I don’t feel well.”
The football legend passed away on Wednesday from a heart attack.
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It can now be revealed Maradona, 60, ate breakfast before telling nephew Johnny Esposito he didn’t feel well and was going to lie down again.
A nurse who was looking after Maradona, following his release from hospital after his brain scan op, phoned for an ambulance and several responded.
But it was already too late and the retired footballer was dead by the time help arrived.
His body will now lie in state of three days as Argentina goes into 72 hours of national mourning over his death.
The last hours of the former Napoli and Barcelona star’s shockingly short life were played out in Argentine media as an autopsy expected to show he had died from a massive heart attack.
One described how he had awoken in the morning looking pale and complaining of feeling cold.
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He went back to bed after a quick breakfast where he is said to have pronounced his last words: ‘Me siento mal’ – English for ‘I don’t feel well.’
Emergency responders made an unsuccessful attempt to revive him after they arrived at the rented house in the gated community he had moved to after leaving hospital on November 11.
State prosecutors, who have launched a routine inquiry into Maradona’s death, said it had occurred around midday.
The preliminary autopsy has found Maradona died in his sleep after suffering heart failure which caused a pulmonary edema.
Medics are also said to have detected dilated cardiomyopathy, a medical condition in which the heart muscle becomes weakened and enlarged and cannot pump enough blood to the rest of the body.
Pulmonary edema, fluid accumulation in the lung’s tissue and air spaces, are caused by heart problems in most cases.
Maradona’s psychologist Carlos Diaz and a psychiatrist named as Agustina Cosachov arrived at the home in the exclusive gated estate where he had been resting since being discharged from hospital.
“They went to his bedroom on a ground floor and spoke to him and he didn’t reply and they asked his nephew and an assistant to enter the room,” according to the report leaked to Argentinian media.
The reports added: “They tried to wake him up and after failing to detect any vital signs made an unsuccessful attempt to revive him by practising CPR.
”The first emergency medical responders on the scene continued the attempts to revive Maradona along with a surgeon who lives near the property, using adrenaline and atropine which is a prescription medicine used to treat the symptoms of low heart rate.”
His former doctor Alfredo Cahe has also criticised the football legend’s care in the run-up to his death.
Dr Cahe – who worked with Maradona for 30 years – questioned the decision to move the soccer legend from hospital on November 11.
He told Argentinian news show Telefe Noticias: “Diego wasn’t looked after as he should have been.
“He should have been kept in hospital, not taken to a house which wasn’t properly prepared.
“I’m in a state of complete commotion. I’ve had so many ups and downs with Diego for 33 years and he’s just died in an unusual way.”
Prosecution chief John Broyad, speaking outside San Andres as the retired footballer’s body was taken to a nearby morgue for an autopsy, said: “Diego Armando Maradona died around 12pm local time.
“The forensic police began their work at 4pm. No signs of any criminality or violence have been detected.
“The autopsy is being carried out to determine beyond any doubt the cause of death but we can say at this stage that everything is pointing to natural causes.”
Maradona’s wake will take place at the Argentinian equivalent of the White House.
It had been rumoured the Casa Rosada, the seat of the country’s national government which houses the president’s office and translates as the Pink House, would be used.
President Alberto Fernandez has already announced three days of national mourning.
Maradona, who only turned 60 on October 30, spelled out while he was still alive the message he wanted engraved on his tombstone.
The legend made the astonishing admission in a bizarre TV interview 15 years ago in which he quizzed himself.
The famous former footballer being interviewed for the show Diego presented at the time called La Noche del 10 said ‘getting old with his grandchildren would mean a peaceful death’ for him.
Maradona said: “Thanks for having played football because it’s the sport that gave me most happiness and freedom and it’s like having touched the sky with my hand.
“Thanks to the ball. Yes, I would put on the tombstone…‘Thanks to the ball.’”