NORTH KOREA - Otto Warmbier, 22, UV student, released from North Korea, June 2017, Deceased

Patients in a vegetative state are awake, but show no signs of awareness. They may be able to open their eyes, have basic reflexes to actions, and wake up or fall asleep at various intervals. UWS patients are also able to breathe without mechanical assistance, while maintaining a regular heartbeat.

The amount of communication and cognitive mechanisms is limited with UWS. Patients might be able to swallow, grunt, smile, or moan without any external stimulus. They are also unable to obey verbal commands.

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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.

Will he recover? The chances of recovery are dependent on the nature of the injury to the brain and the age of the patient. Recovering from UWS is a long process that could involve medicine, physical therapy or even surgery.

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dotr said:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40293388

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Elainera said:

Otto Warmbier: What is Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome? Can he recover?





https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...akefulness-syndrome-can-he-recover/403475001/

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wendybtn said:

The MRI here shows large areas of 'dead' brain matter, where the brain was deprived of oxygen for a prolonged time. I don't know how much recovery he can achieve. Prayers.

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kaen said:

I am horrified that this happened. Now, we can also turn our focus to the other Americans held in North Korea so their fate is not the same. I hope this family and the government can work back channels to gain access to these men and secure their release.

This certainly gives a sense of the brutality of this government.

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The worst known case of abuse before Mr. Warmbier was that of Robert Park, a Christian missionary who said he was severely beaten by North Korean soldiers after he was caught in 2009 while walking across the border from China waving a Bible. After he was transferred to Pyongyang, North Korea, he said, he was subjected to torture so horrific he begged for death.
“Several North Korean women surrounded me and did the worst thing to me to try to make me commit suicide,” Mr. Park said in an interview with the South Korean news agency Yonhap. He said the women beat his genitals with a club.

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Elainera said:

After Otto Warmbier, will U.S. push back against North Korea?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...h-korea-policy-after-otto-warmbier/405001001/

Interesting article.

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New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said. Richardson, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton, now is a negotiator for detainees in countries hostile to the United States and had sought to secure Otto Warmbier’s release.

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“This a real opportunity to say to the Chinese, ‘Look at these human rights violations. Look what they did to this young man,’ ” Richardson said. “This is one of the worst violations, the most egregious treatment of human rights that I’ve seen.”

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Otto Warmbier: How did North Korea holiday end in jail, and a coma?

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But how did a brilliant student from an Ohio suburb with hopes of becoming an investment banker end up imprisoned in a pariah state? And why was he released in a coma?

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Homecoming king

The Warmbiers hail from a small suburb called Wyoming in Cincinnati, Ohio, where father Fred owns a small company.

Otto attended the best high school in the state, and was prom and homecoming king.

He was not only popular but also studious - he graduated as Salutatorian (the second-highest ranking student in his year) - and a talented athlete. His football coach has said he was a gifted player and a natural leader.

Otto went on to study economics and commerce with a minor in global sustainability at the University of Virginia and flourished there, according to the Washington Post.

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Otto is said to have known long before his college peers what he wanted to pursue as a career: investment banking.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he sat on the committee of a student investment fund and travelled to London in 2015 to complete a course in advanced econometrics at the London School of Economics.
His studiousness - and interest in travel - were what took him to Asia. Otto had been set to study at a university in Hong Kong on a study abroad programme in January 2016 and decided to stop in North Korea on the way.

'They decided to take an American

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The night Otto is said to have tried to take the sign from within a staff-only area of the 1,000-room Yanggakdo International Hotel was New Year's Eve 2015, the second night of the tour.
Earlier, the group had taken a trip to the border with South Korea before returning, having a meal and taking a coach to Pyongyang's main square, where there was a big fireworks display. They had food and drank beer, Mr Gratton said.

However there was no rowdy behaviour - "It wasn't that sort of holiday," Mr Gratton said. "We toed the line." He said there was "no indication at all" that Otto had taken the hotel propaganda sign and he had not mentioned it.

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"They made the decision to take an American. It was just his time, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Later, once the remaining group arrived in Beijing, one of the tour guides is reported to have spoken to Otto on the phone, who said he had a "severe headache and wanted to be taken to the hospital", the Post reports, citing another passenger.

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Observers said the sentence seemed unusually high for a foreigner and could be related to deepening tensions between North Korea and the US over the former's nuclear programme.

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Blondie in Spokane said:

I haven't followed this story for quite a while and find the proof of Otto's mistreatment so hideous and unforgivable. Thinking back, didn't NK originally float the story that Otto was removing the poster on a dare or as a favor to someone back home? It's been so long since I followed along here.....

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North Korean authorities said they had security footage of him trying to steal a banner containing a political slogan that was hanging from the walls of his Pyongyang hotel.

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That was used as evidence in his hour-long trial, during which North Korea accused him of committing "hostile acts" against the regime at the urging of a purported member of a church in his home state of Ohio, a secretive university organization and the CIA.

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ZaZara said:

[video=twitter;876901519681101824]https://twitter.com/AFP/status/876901519681101824[/video]

AFP News

#BREAKING US student Otto Warmbier, who was evacuated from North Korea, has died, according to his family


BBM


:rose:

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The family announced his death in a statement released by UC Health Systems, saying, “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.”

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The family thanked the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treating him but said, “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.”

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They said they were choosing to focus on the time they were given with their “warm, engaging, brilliant” son instead of focusing on what they had lost

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