The last time I saw this young gentleman alive and speaking he was hysterical. He either had been drugged or given bad food already or bad water to begin to put him in this present comatose wakefulness even then. I realized this young man in the way he spoke was already so completely traumatized by what had already happened to him in North Korea that even then I knew he might never recover. I think his body shielded his mind by putting him in a coma that he might possibly survive this and eventually return home to normalcy. I suppose he has maybe a 50 50 chance of waking up from this and thinking this was all a bad dream.
After reading the article I have different thoughts. If he wasn't drugged then likely he was either beaten around the head or strangled to prevent blood flow to his brain. Over time brain tissue died or it was a sudden trauma from blows to the head. So, I'm thinking if it wasn't drugs that caused this it was head blows or strangulation almost to the point of death that would cause an injury like his.
begin quote from:
Doctors say US student freed by North Korea is in a state of 'unresponsive wakefulness'
Warmbier 'shows no signs of awareness of his surroundings'
Doctors: Ex-North Korea detainee Otto Warmbier has severe brain injury
Story highlights
- College student Otto Warmbier was released this week after 17 months detention
- Wambier's father rejects Pyongyang's explanation of his son's coma
(CNN)Doctors
caring for released North Korea detainee Otto Warmbier said he has not
spoken or moved on his own since he arrived in the United States on
Tuesday.
They described his condition as "unresponsive wakefulness," also known as persistent vegetative state.
The
22-year-old has suffered extensive loss of brain tissue in all regions
of the brain, doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center
said in a news conference Thursday. He opens his eyes and blinks
spontaneously but shows no signs of understanding language or responding
to verbal commands, said Dr. Daniel Kanter, professor of neurology and
director of the Neurocritical Care Program.
Without
speculating on the cause of his injuries, Kanter and his colleagues
said they found no evidence based on his condition to support the
regime's explanation of botulism.
The
doctors said they had no information about the care he received in
North Korea. The earliest images of his brain they received from North
Korea are dated April 2016, Kanter said. An analysis suggests the injury
likely occurred in the preceding weeks.
"We have no certifiable knowledge of the cause or circumstances of his neurological injuries," Kanter said.
"This
pattern of brain injury is usually seen as result of cardiopulmonary
arrest where blood supply to brain is inadequate for a period of time,
resulting in the death of brain tissue."
Family speaks out
The
American college student returned Tuesday to the United States after 17
months in detention. His family asked his doctors to disclose details
about his condition amid intense scrutiny and questions about his
condition.
Earlier Thursday, his
father told reporters he rejected the regime's explanation that Otto
fell into a coma after contracting botulism and taking a sleeping pill
in March 2016, shortly after he stood trial in the country for a
"hostile act."
"Even
if you believe their explanation of botulism and a sleeping pill
causing a coma -- and we don't -- there is no excuse for any civilized
nation to have kept his condition a secret and denied him top-notch
medical care for so long," said Fred Warmbier in a 23-minute news
conference at his son's alma mater, Wyoming High School north of
Cincinnati.
The father, wearing the
cream sport coat his son wore during his televised trial in North
Korea, stopped short of saying how he believed his son was injured.
"We're going to leave that to the doctors (to explain) today," he said.
Why does North Korea detain some US citizens? 01:17
He called on North Korea to release other American detainees.
"There's
no excuse for the way the North Koreans treated our son. And no excuse
for the way they've treated so many others," he said. "No other family
should have to endure what the Warmbiers have."
Conviction and release
Otto
Warmbier was a University of Virginia student when he was detained in
January 2016 at the airport in Pyongyang while on his way home. He had
been on a tour of the reclusive country, his parents said.
North
Korean authorities claimed they had security footage of him trying to
steal a banner containing a political slogan that was hanging from a
wall of his Pyongyang hotel.
That
was used as evidence in his hourlong trial. He was found guilty of
committing a "hostile act" against the country and sentenced in March
2016 to 15 years of hard labor. It was the last time he was seen
publicly before this week.
His parents learned of their son's condition -- what North Korea called a coma -- only last week, they said in a statement.
Critical of Obama administration
Fred
Warmbier appeared critical of the Obama administration's handling of
Otto's detention, saying the family heeded the US government's initial
advice to take a low profile "without result."
They kept quiet "on the false premise that (North Korea) would treat Otto fairly and let him go," he said.
He
said he and his wife, Cindy, decided this year that the "time for
strategic patience was over," and so they did media interviews and
traveled to Washington to meet the State Department's special
representative for North Korean policy, Joseph Yun.
Yun
met in May with North Korean representatives in Norway, and the North
Koreans agreed that Swedish representatives would be allowed to visit
Otto Warmbier and three other US detainees, a senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity this week.
After
the Swedes visited one detainee, North Korea representatives sought
another meeting with Yun, and it was at that June 6 meeting in New York
that North Korea's UN ambassador told Yun that Warmbier was in a coma,
the official said.
North Korea released Warmbier six days later.
Fred Warmbier praised the Trump administration's efforts: "They have our thanks for bringing Otto home."
When
asked whether then-President Barack Obama could have done more,
Warmbier replied, "I think the results speak for themselves."
Father, supporters share emotional moment
The father saluted his son as a brilliant, adventurous and courageous man who did what he could to endure brutality and terror.
Fred
Warmbier shared an emotional moment with supporters after he left the
news conference. While driving away, he saw a group of about 150 people
wearing blue and white shirts, and ribbons of the same color
combination, in support of Otto at a nearby intersection.
He left the vehicle and spoke to the crowd. Some were in tears as he spoke to them.
"I'm proud of my son," he said.
"We're proud of him, too," some in the crowd shouted back.
Three other US detainees
Warmbier's release coincided with basketball star Dennis Rodman's latest visit to North Korea, though Michael Anton, a US national security spokesman, told CNN there is no connection between the two.
Fred Warmbier said the same Thursday.
"Dennis Rodman had nothing to do with Otto," he said.
Rodman
was asked by reporters Tuesday if he would bring up the cases of
Warmbier and three other Americans detained in North Korea. "That's not
my purpose right now," he said. "My purpose is to go over there and try
to see if I can keep bringing sports to North Korea."
The
other Americans held by Pyongyang are Kim Sang Duk and Kim Hak-song,
academics who worked at the Pyongyang University of Science and
Technology, and businessman named Kim Dong Chul.
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