Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old college student who was released from imprisonment in North Koreain a coma, has died, his family said Monday. 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 2:20 p.m., the statement read. It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost future time that wont be spent with a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds, the statement continued. 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 that the love for Otto went well beyond his immediate family. The University of Virginia student was sentenced to 15 years of prison and hard laborfor allegedly stealing a political propaganda poster from his Pyongyang hotel in January 2016. He returned home to Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 13 in a coma after being brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime, his family said at the time. We would … Continue reading →

Sixty-two percent of the 91,764 service members dismissed by the U.S. military for misconduct between 2011 and 2015 had been diagnosed two years before separation with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or other conditions that could be associated with misconduct. And more than 13,200 of them received an other than honorable characterization of service, referred to as bad paper, making them ineligible for health benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The discharges, imposed with little or no due process, carried the stigma of a criminal conviction and the stain of dishonor. They contributed to homelessness, substance abuse and suicide. Fifty years ago, 550,000 U.S. troops fought in Vietnam. At wars end, more than half of all veterans diagnosed with PTSD had been arrested more than one multiple times mostly for drug-related crimes. Many suffered from undiagnosed and untreated combat-related PTSD and, tragically, many were issued less-than-honorable discharges from the service. For years, the military underdiagnosed and did not treat the problems and then cursed the sufferers with discharges for misconduct. Today, the VA estimates that 1 in 5 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from PTSD. And, between 2009 and 2016, more than 25,000 combat soldiers were … Continue reading →

After being imprisoned for 17 months in North Korea, 22-year-old Otto Warmbier was returned to his home in Ohio this week. On Thursday, doctors at Cincinnati Medical Center spoke publicly about his condition. It is, technically, stablethough that could sound misleadingly positive. His heart is not in imminent danger of stopping, but stability does not mean Warmbier is poised to lead a life that involves movement or communication. Rather all evidence presented by his doctors yesterday indicates that Warmbier is much closer to death than he is to the University of Virginia student he was in early 2016, when he took a recreational trip to Pyongyang. There he was arrested in the airport for a hostile act against the government and last seen shortly after, in the news conference pictured above. His doctors yesterday described Warmbiers most recognizable sign of life as spontaneous eye-opening and blinking. That means not only is he not communicating, he does not open or close his eyes when asked to do so. He does not show signs of awareness. Based on magnetic resonance images of Warmbiers brain, his status is not likely to substantively improve. The scans showed extensive loss of brain tissue in all … Continue reading →

A woman has been critically injured after an incident occurred under mysterious circumstances at a Beijing water park. A woman surnamed Liu sufferedsevere head trauma at theHappy Water Rubik's Cube ( hun yo shu mfng)on May 28while riding the "Tornado," a park attractionin which visitors ride a raftdown afour-story water slide through a pipe and into a spiraling funnel. Liu was given medical attention at the Fengtai District water park, andwas then sent to the emergency room atAerospace Center Hospital where doctors determined Liu had suffered acardiac arrest and ahydrocephalus condition. Liu has notregained consciousness since the incident first happened. Her condition has worsened to the point where she can only breathe with the aid of a ventilator. Liu's mother has said, "The doctor told us that she may pass any time now." Despite her grave situation, no one has been forthcoming about the circumstances behind theHappyWater Rubik's Cube incident. A man named Jiang was sitting next to the victim on the raft on the Tornado slide along with an unnamed third party when the incident occurred. However, Jiang's recollection of the incident to the Beijing Morning Report only begins once the ride was over, at which time he noticed … Continue reading →