Family declines autopsy for former North Korea detainee Otto Warmbier

An Ohio coroner, abiding by family wishes, has performed an external examination instead of a full autopsy on the body of the US student who was held prisoner in North Korea for 17 months and sent home in a coma.

Otto Warmbier died on Monday near his family home in Ohio.

North Korea claims his coma was due to botulism and a sleeping pill, but the Warmbier family and doctors disagree.

The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office was still conferring on Tuesday with doctors at a Cincinnati hospital who were treating Otto Warmbier, 22, before reaching any conclusions about his death a day earlier, investigator Daryl Zornes said.

Warmbier was arrested at Pyongyang airport in January 2016 and sentenced in March to 15 years hard labour for allegedly taking a propaganda poster from his hotel room, where he had been staying as part of an organised tour.

He was medically evacuated from North Korea last Tuesday and flown to the US. Doctors from the University of Cincinnati medical centre, where Warmbier was taken, said he had suffered injuries related to cardiopulmonary arrest and was in a state of unresponsive wakefulness. Scans showed extensive loss in all regions of Warmbier’s brain.

However, the coroner's office would not confirm the cause of death, saying in a statement: "No conclusions about the cause and manner of Warmbier's death have been drawn at this time as there are additional medical records and imaging to review and people to interview.

"Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of Warmbier at this time of their tragic loss."

Investigators were continuing to review radiological images and awaiting additional medical records requested by the coroner, according to Zornes.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had spoken with Warmbier’s family and praised them as “incredible”.

“It’s a total disgrace what happened to Otto,” Trump told reporters in the White House, where he was meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. “And frankly, if he were brought home sooner, I think the results would have been a lot different”.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the administration would “continue to apply economic and political pressure” on North Korea, in conjunction with US allies and China, “to change this behaviour and this regime.“