Jailed student ‘has brain damage’

An American college student who emerged from prison in North Korea in a coma has severe brain damage but doctors don’t know what caused it, a medical team treating him in Ohio said on Thursday.

The doctors described Otto Warmbier as being in a state of “unresponsive wakefulness” but declined to discuss his outlook for improvement, saying such information would be kept confidential. “He has spontaneous eye opening and blinking,” said Dr. Daniel Kanter, director of neurocritical care for the University of Cincinnati Health system. “However, he shows no signs of understanding language.”