Otto Warmbier Coming Home From NK

[Ben]

He's coming home. In a coma. In which he has apparently been for a year, after being given a "sleeping pill" for botulism. This has got to be hard on his parents. There also has to be a lot more to the story.

At the same time, Dennis Rodham is going back to NK for a visit with his pal. Yay sports!

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/06/13/north-korea-releases-jailed-us-student-otto-warmbier.html

[Angel Eyes]

At the same time, Dennis Rodham is going back to NK for a visit with his pal. Yay sports!

Warmbier's release leaves three U.S. citizens currently known to be held in North Korea: accounting professor Kim Sang Duk, businessman Kim Dong Chul and Kim Hak-Song, who worked at Pyongyang University.

Any chance we could trade Rodman for those three?  Given that he's an ex-NBA player, he should be used to it.

[Jocassee]

This makes me angry.

The guy was monumentally stupid. No question. But we wouldn't tolerate this behavior from any other government.

[RevDisk]

This makes me angry.

The guy was monumentally stupid. No question. But we wouldn't tolerate this behavior from any other government.

Unification costs would make West/East Germany look like the day at the park. No one, absolutely no one, wants to pay the humanitarian costs of cleaning up NK.

SK doesn't want to spend a third of its GDP for decades or a century rehabbing the North.

[BobR]

I have a very funny feeling about this guy. After seeing his behavior at the trial that the Norks have released I am almost tempted to do a distant wild ass guess and say he *may* have tried to check himself out and it was botched (i.e. the guards cut him down in time, but not early enough). Once they had this anoxic brain American prisoner what were their options? I would like to be wrong but there is that slim chance I am not. :(


bob

[TechMan]

He is suppose to land here in Cincinnati tonight, nothing yet on the local news media.

[Firethorn]

Sadly, my bet would be on "brain dead" rather than just in a coma.   

[MillCreek]

I will be interested to hear what sort of condition he is in: weight, bedsores, contractures, decorticate/decerebrate posturing, trach for a ventilator, etc.  And what was the cause of this coma?  Botulism can indeed cause a coma due to untreated respiratory failure, but patients can be put on a ventilator.

I wonder if NK deliberately caused his brain injury to either make sure he never speaks about his experience, or as a warning to other tourists who run afoul of the NK government.

[TechMan]

They are going to hold a press conference on Thursday at 10 a.m.

[Hawkmoon]

I wonder if NK deliberately caused his brain injury to either make sure he never speaks about his experience, or as a warning to other tourists who run afoul of the NK government.

If they did, it works for me. I can't imagine why any sane person would want to go there.



[No, I don't consider Dennis Rodman to be sane.]

[HankB]

If they did, it works for me. I can't imagine why any sane person would want to go there.

Maybe he should gone somewhere safer . . . like on an unaccompanied hiking trip along the unmarked part of the Iran/Iraq border . . .

[Brad Johnson]

I have a very funny feeling about this guy. After seeing his behavior at the trial that the Norks have released I am almost tempted to do a distant wild ass guess and say he *may* have tried to check himself out and it was botched (i.e. the guards cut him down in time, but not early enough). Once they had this anoxic brain American prisoner what were their options? I would like to be wrong but there is that slim chance I am not. :(


bob

Extensive brain injuries consistent with restricted blood flow to the brain.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/06/15/otto-warmbier-has-extensive-brain-damage-doctor-says.html

Gestation period in adults is 12-72 hours so it could ostensibly be a case of untreated or poorly treated botulism-related pulmonary paralysis. However, given it happened so coincidentally the day after his conviction I would give more credibility to BobR's intuition than the NorK explanation.


Brad

[Ben]

A report I saw this morning said doctors found no evidence of botulism (but still didn't rule out he may have had it). The big thing they talked about was the brain damage that they suggested was due to lack of oxygen, consistent with cardiac arrest related respiratory failure.

It seem they are keeping much information close to the vest (possibly to protect those still captive, if foul play was involved) so it seems there are still many possibilities at this point.

[TechMan]

Here is a story from the local rag. http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/06/15/otto-warmbier-state-unresponsive-wakefulness/400961001/

He can open his eyes and blink. But he does not appear to understand language and does not answer commands. His arms and legs have atrophied. Kanter also said that when Warmbier arrived back in Cincinnati Tuesday night, his possessions included a disk that held two scans that North Korean medical providers took of him. One was in April 2016 and the other scan was in July 2016. The doctors said the scans chronicled the deterioration of Warmbier’s brain. {snip} They also said their tests revealed that he did not have any broken bones or marks on his body other than those that indicated medical treatment.

[Ben]

It's even more conjecture, but stuff I heard this morning goes back to "the sleeping pill" or a family of drugs that could mess up respiration and cause the O2 loss to the brain.

Wild theory, but I wonder if, being a young kid, he panicked or freaked out in some way after it hit him that he was going to hard labor, and the NK people "calmed him down" by administering a drug, and either it was misadministered or else his body had an adverse reaction?

[MillCreek]

Boy, it sounds as though he is in terrible shape, and I am betting he will never make a meaningful cognitive recovery.  When I was a paramedic responding to unwitnessed cardiac/respiratory arrests where the patient was down for a significant period of time, if the family wanted to know the realistic chances, I told them that if we could revive them at all, the chances of the patient walking, talking and thinking out of the hospital was in the single digits.

[TechMan]

He has passed away.
http://local12.com/news/local/otto-warmbier-has-died-according-to-his-family

It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home. Surrounded by his loving family, Otto died today at 2:20pm.
It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost – future time that won’t be spent with a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds. But we choose to focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person. You can tell from the outpouring of emotion from the communities that he touched – Wyoming, Ohio and the University of Virginia to name just two – that the love for Otto went well beyond his immediate family.
We would like to thank the wonderful professionals at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center who did everything they could for Otto. 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.
When Otto returned to Cincinnati late on June 13th he was unable to speak, unable to see and unable to react to verbal commands. He looked very uncomfortable – almost anguished. Although we would never hear his voice again, within a day the countenance of his face changed – he was at peace. He was home and we believe he could sense that.
We thank everyone around the world who has kept him and our family in their thoughts and prayers. We are at peace and at home too.
- Fred & Cindy Warmbier and Family

[Ben]

Thoughts and prayers for the family. Yeah, the kid screwed up, but he didn't deserve this.

[MillCreek]

Not to sound morbid, but if I or a loved one was in the same shape as Mr. Warmbier, a quick death would not be a bad thing.

[Ben]

Not to sound morbid, but if I or a loved one was in the same shape as Mr. Warmbier, a quick death would not be a bad thing.

I don't disagree with you there, in fact that's how the advance care health directive is set up in my trust - just pull the damn plug. I meant the circumstances that led to the coma, because "random accident" is pretty low on my list. No one should end up dead for stealing a poster, whether from torture or negligent care.

[Unisaw]

He has now passed away.

[mtnbkr]

He has now passed away.

Again?

Chris

[Unisaw]

Sorry, I didn't see Andy's post.

[K Frame]

Again?

Chris

Yep. Goddamned Norks brought him back as a zombie just so they could kill him all over.