Parents of American held in North Korea: He was jerking violently, made inhuman sound

Otto Warmbier’s parents told a Fox News TV show on Tuesday that North Korea tortured and “destroyed” him.

The parents of the American detained in North Korea said on Tuesday that their son was tortured and “destroyed” by the Kim Jong Un regime. Otto Warmbier, 22, died in the US days after his release.

The Korean Central News Agency’s handout photo shows US student Otto Frederick Warmbier, who was arrested for committing hostile acts against North Korea, speaking at a press conference in Pyongyang.(AFP File Photo)

Warmbier’s parents told a Fox News TV show on Tuesday that North Korea tortured and “destroyed” him. Trump tweeted afterwards: “Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea.” Trump’s tweet added to a series of recent accusations and heated exchanges between his administration and North Korean officials.

Fred Warmbier said on TV that his son’s mouth “looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth”.

The parents, for the first time, described the condition his family found him in when they went aboard an air ambulance that arrived June 13 in Cincinnati. His father said he was making an “involuntary, inhuman sound,” “‘staring blankly into space jerking violently,” and was blind and deaf with his head shaved.

North Korea has denied mistreating Warmbier, sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in March 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster two months earlier. North Korea has claimed Warmbier fell into a coma that resulted from botulism and a sleeping pill.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier watch as the casket for their son Otto is placed in a hearse after his funeral in Wyoming, Ohio. (AP File Photo)

Coroner’s report says brain damage

A coroner said on Wednesday her office could not determine what led to the fatal brain damage of a young Ohio man detained in North Korea for more than a year.

Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said evidence has led to no “scientific facts” to solve Warmbier’s mysterious death. “We don’t know what happened to him, and this is the bottom line,” she said. The cause of the death may never be known, she added.

A coroner’s report dated September 11 shows the cause of death for the University of Virginia student as complications from brain-damaging oxygen deprivation through “an unknown insult more than a year prior to death.” The medical term for his condition was called “chronic anoxic/ischemic encephalopathy.” The manner of death was listed as “undetermined”.

The casket of Otto Warmbier as it is carried out from his funeral at Wyoming High School in Wyoming, Ohio. (AFP File Photo)

While Warmbier’s family declined an autopsy, Sammarco said her office used extensive medical scanning and imaging for a “virtual autopsy” and that nothing more would have been gained by doing an autopsy so long after his brain damage occurred.

Sammarco agreed with University of Cincinnati Health system doctors who treated Warmbier and said they found no evidence of botulism or evidence of fractures or healing fractures that might point to beatings. She said a forensic dentist agreed with her conclusion there was “no evidence of trauma” to Warmbier’s teeth.

Sammarco said Warmbier’s body, including his skin, was in surprisingly good condition for someone who had reportedly been bedridden for more than a year, indicating he received regular care. Her office’s report said his body appeared “well-nourished.” There were multiple scars and bruises, some apparently stemming from medical procedures.

He died in Cincinnati in June 2017, less than a week after his return to the US Sammarco said Warmbier was put on “comfort care” measures, such as removing a feeding tube.

UC Health doctors said in June that Warmbier was in a state of “unresponsive wakefulness” and had suffered a “severe neurological injury” of uncertain cause.

His father didn’t respond immediately Wednesday to requests for comment.