What Really Killed Otto Warmbier?

It must come as no surprise that his tragic death came so soon. What's the Hermit Kingdom hiding from us?

June 19, 2017, 2:20 pm: just four days after his arrival home from North Korea, American student Otto Warmbier is declared dead at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center at the age of 22. For the past year and a half, he was held captive in North Korea after being found guilty for the theft of a DPRK political propaganda poster. After a trial that lasted less than two hours, Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a North Korean labor camp. But why was he sent home after serving just a tenth of his full sentence, and what was the exact cause of his death?

In what at first glance seemed like a successfully negotiated release, Warmbier was in fact medically evacuated from his captor country in a state of “unconscious wakefulness,” or another form of being in a vegetative state. North Korean officials state that he had contracted botulism soon after his trial and fell into a coma after being administered a sleeping pill. But further investigation shows no signs of contracting botulism. In fact, there were not even any signs indicating torture or abuse.



Amid pressures from the U.S. government to release Warmbier—along with growing U.S.-North Korean tensions due to the U.S.'s mobilization in the Asian-Pacific—one may conclude that Warmbier's early liberation was a quick attempt by the North Korean government to “wash their hands clean” of any grave effects of their judicial ruling in what seemed like a release of their “responsibility”.

Otto Warmbier being medically evacuated to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center while still in a coma.

North Korea claims that Warmbier was in a coma for almost the entire one-and-a-half years of his captivity, but official reports reveal that he fell into a coma just a week before his return to the States. Furthermore, expert neurologist Daniel Kanter states that Warmbier had suffered extensive loss of brain tissue throughout several areas of his brain due to cardiopulmonary arrest; in essence, his brain was deprived of oxygen. As far as the exact cause of this oxygen deprivation, one theory states that he was overly medicated to the point of irreversible brain damage, while another cites traumatic injury as the main suspect.




In a show of empathy, U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed ongoing concerns over the student's condition; consistently pressing for his release and personally contacting Fred Warmbier (Otto's father) for updates on his son. He even issued a statement to the press, stating, "There is nothing more tragic for a parent than to lose a child in the prime of life. Our thoughts and prayers are with Otto's family and friends, and all who loved him."



Will we ever find out the truth? Only time will tell..