Otto Frederick Warmbier Released From North Korea With Brain Damage

Otto Wambier arrested in North Korea last year, has now been released from the North Korean prison, and he arrives the United States on Tuesday, but according to the Dr. Daniel Kanter, medical director of the neuroscience intensive care unit at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center where he is getting treatment, Otto is stable " but "shows no sign of understanding language, responding to verbal commands or awareness of his surroundings."

                     

Otto has been in a coma since 2016, after he was sentenced to 15 years in NK prison after stealing an item that bears a propaganda slogan. 

North Korea releasing statements on Otto release says that the country is releasing him "on humanitarian grounds."

Fred Wambier speaking on his son ill-health said that the North Korea regime has "brutalized and terrorized" his son. He said he does not believe in the North Korea statement that he had fallen into coma after contracting botulism, and was given a sleeping pill.

Doctors in the US have confirmed that there is no sign of botulism in Otto's system, but Kanter said that he had suffered "extensive loss of brain tissue in all regions of the brain," but won't give more details of his prognosis on the request of Otto's family.

Last month, the US congress introduced a bill that will stop American citizens from traveling to North Korea as tourists, and special visits will require special permission. 

Around 17 Americans are in jail in the North Korea facility.