Fred and Cindy Warmbier appeared on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" morning TV show amid an escalating war of words between the Trump administration and North Korea. A North Korean official has claimed President Donald Trump has, in effect, declared war, which the White House denied.
Otto Warmbier's father said they wanted to speak out about his condition after hearing North Korea claiming to be a victim that's being picked on.
The parents described the condition his family found him in when they went aboard an air ambulance that arrived June 13 in Cincinnati.
They said Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, was howling, making an "involuntary, inhuman sound," ''staring blankly into space jerking violently," and was blind and deaf with his head shaved. Fred Warmbier said his mouth "looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth."
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Fred Warmbier said Otto's mother and sister ran off the plane at the initial sight of him.
President Trump tweeted about the family's appearance, calling it "a great interview" and that: "Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea."
Fred Warmbier also said Otto had a large scar on his right foot and a high fever.
He died less than a week after returning at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Doctors there said he arrived in a state of "unresponsive wakefulness" and had suffered a "severe neurological injury" of uncertain cause.