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US Student Released From N. Korea Has Severe Neurological Injury - Hospital

© REUTERS / Bryan Woolston A person believed to be Otto Warmbier is transferred from a medical transport airplane to an awaiting ambulance at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S., June 13, 2017
A person believed to be Otto Warmbier is transferred from a medical transport airplane to an awaiting ambulance at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S., June 13, 2017 - Sputnik International
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According to UC Health Senior Director of Communications, student who was returned to US after being imprisoned in North Korea has a severe brain injury.

American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang. - Sputnik International
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North Korea Releases Jailed US University Student
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) Otto Warmbier, the student who was returned to the US state of Ohio in a coma after being detained in North Korea for more than a year, has a severe brain injury but is in stable condition, UC Health Senior Director of Communications Kelly Martin said in a press conference on Thursday.

"I can tell you that today, at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Otto is in stable condition, but has suffered a severe neurological injury," Martin stated.

Martin also said Warmbier's doctors will release more detailed information about his condition later today.

In March 2016, Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to steal a political banner, an action that was classified by Pyongyang as a "hostile" act against North Korea.

Fred Warmbier, Otto's father, blamed North Korea for his son going to the country in the first place saying, "The North Koreans lure Americans to travel to North Korea via tour groups that run out of China that advertise slick ads on the internet proclaiming no American ever gets detained off of our tours and this is a safe place to go."

While it is not illegal for Americans to travel to North Korea, the US State Department "strongly warns" citizens not to travel there due to a serious risk of arrest and long-term detention.

Fred Warmbier also noted he received a phone call from President Donald Trump on Wednesday night, and Trump told the family how hard Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had worked to bring their son home.

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