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'Remarkable improvement' Maradona's condition improving, doctor says
Posted: Saturday January 08, 2000 05:59 PM
PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay (Reuters) -- Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona, who tested positive for cocaine after being hospitalized in Uruguay this week, is improving, his doctor said Saturday. "Maradona's condition is stable and shows a remarkable improvement both in the cardiovascular and in the psychomotor fields," said Frank Torres, Maradona's doctor at the Cantegril clinic in the resort of Punta del Este. The 39-year-old star with a history of drug problems was admitted to the hospital Tuesday with hypertension and an irregular heartbeat. On Wednesday, he tested positive for cocaine, setting off a police investigation. On Friday, Torres said doctors had "detected a severe heart pathology and a general psychomotor problem." Torres authorized Maldonado Department Judge Adriana de los Santos to interrogate the athlete and said that Maradona was healthy enough to testify Saturday. Victor Della Valle, a Uruguayan lawyer advising Maradona, said that Maradona was willing to testify and that the judge might interrogate him at the hospital later Saturday. Maradona is not under arrest because drug use is not illegal in Uruguay. Drug trafficking is a crime, however. Police Chief Maximo Costa Rocha told Reuters that anti-drug forces were trying to find out from whom Maradona got the drugs. Uruguayan authorities have questioned several of Maradona's friends, including his manager, Guillermo Coppola. They have also raided homes where he has been staying in Punta del Este, a luxury resort on Uruguay's Atlantic coast some 84 miles east of Montevideo. Torres said hospital officials had been in touch with Maradona's family and personal physician, Alfredo Cae, to transfer him to another hospital "foreseeably within the next 48 hours." Maradona's mother visited him Saturday. Maradona has played for Spanish, Italian and Argentine teams, leading his country to victory against Germany in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico City. But his career has become a roller-coaster of comebacks and failures since he tested positive for cocaine in 1991 while playing for Italy's Napoli. Late last year, an Argentine court rejected a bid to overturn his 1998 two-year prison sentence for shooting journalists with an air-powered pellet rifle. He did not have to serve time in jail, however, because under Argentine law, people sentenced to less than three years in prison can remain free as long as they are not convicted of another crime within four years.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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