Grieving family: His journey is complete
American student dies week after release from North Korea
The family of an American college student who died days after being released from North Korea in a coma says the 22-year-old “has completed his journey home”. Otto Warmbier died yesterday, relatives said in a statement. They did not cite a specific cause of death.
“Unfortunately, the awful, torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today,” his parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, said.
Doctors had described Warmbier’s condition as a state of “unresponsive wakefulness” and said he suffered a “severe neurological injury” of unknown cause. He arrived in Ohio on June 13 after being held for more than 17 months.
The University of Virginia student was accused of trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting with a tour group and was convicted of subversion. He was put before North Korean officials and journalists for a televised “confession”. “I have made the worst mistake of my life!” he exclaimed, choking up as he begged to be allowed to reunite with his parents and two younger siblings.
He was sentenced in March last year to 15 years in prison with hard labour. His family said it was told he had been in a coma since soon after his sentencing.
Doctors said he suffered extensive Otto Warmbier appeared in a North Korean court accused of trying to steal a propaganda banner.
Unfortunately, the awful, torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today. Otto Warmbier’s parents
loss of brain tissue and “profound weakness and contraction” of his muscles, arms and legs. His eyes opened and blinked but without any sign that he understood verbal commands or his surroundings.
Unresponsive wakefulness is a new medical term for persistent vegetative state. Patients in this condition who have survived a coma can open their eyes, but they do not respond to commands. People can live in a state of unresponsive wakefulness for many years with the chances of recovery depending on the extent of the brain injury.
North Korea said Warmbier went into a coma after contracting botulism and taking a sleeping pill. Doctors in Cincinnati said they found no active sign of botulism or evidence of beatings.
In a White House statement, President Donald Trump said, “A lot of bad things happened, but at least we got him home to be with his parents.” He called North Korea a “brutal regime”.
Warmbier, who grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of Wyoming, had planned to study in China in his third year of college and heard about Chinese travel companies offering trips to North Korea. He was leaving North Korea on January 2 last year when he was detained at the airport.
The US Department of State warns against travel to North Korea. While nearly all Americans who have been there have left without incident, visitors can be seized and face lengthy incarceration for what might seem like minor infractions.
Jeffrey Fowle, also from Ohio, was detained in 2014 when he intentionally left a Bible in a nightclub. Fowle was freed after six months. He said he was kept isolated most of the time but not physically abused. He and others freed from North Korea have said they were coached and coerced into giving confessions.
Three Americans remain held in North Korea. Nasa’s planet-hunting telescope has found 10 new planets outside our solar system that are likely the right size and temperature to potentially have life on them, broadly hinting that we are probably not alone.
After four years of searching, the Kepler telescope has detected a total of 49 planets in the Goldilocks zone — the habitable zone around a star where the temperature is just right for liquid water to exist.
And it only looked in a tiny part of the galaxy, one quarter of one percent of a galaxy that holds about 200 billion of stars.
Seven of the 10 newfound Earthsize planets circle stars that are just