Justin McCarthy
Forensics 12H
Forensics 12H
Mr. Ippolito
Current Event 4: Otto Warmbier’s Autopsy.
Due October 12th 2017
Kolata, Gina. “Otto Warmbier Suffered Extensive Brain Damage, Coroner Confirms.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/health/otto-warmbier-north-korea-autopsy.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%2BScience&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection.
From New York Times journalist, Gina Kolata, the latest forensics current event ironically does not occur in our country but instead occurs in North Korea. Mrs. Kolata examines the circumstances around the event by emphasizing that from the tragic events that have transpired for Otto Warmbier in North Korea had resulted in his death after being held captive for over a year in Kim Jong Un’s totalitarian regime. Kolata expresses the ramifications that have resulted from the “college student” who was “imprisoned” in North Korea before returning the USA in a “Vegetative State” (Kolata) after suffering extended brain damage at the hands of the North Korean regime. Kolata expresses that the effects that have resulted from this tragic accident is compelling because not only did the young college student die, but the fact that he was tortured by North Korea makes America infuriated with the lack of humanity that Kim Jong Un has installed within his country.
I believe that from reading this article it not only opens my mind to Forensics, but it also opens my mind to the torture and the pain that innocent civilians are suffering right now in North Korea and other countries like them. Kolata speaks to me personally because she makes it clear that the way this young college student was handled by Kim Jong Un’s puppets is disturbing because it brings us back in time when had numerous crimes against humanity occur during World War II. Thus when his body was returned to his parents, Kolata describes the disturbing scene. “The images clearly showed that his brain had been starved of oxygen and that large tracts of cells had died, Dr. Sammarco said. The medical diagnosis is anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy” (Kolata). I believe that from Kolkata's perspective this not only enlightens me about the corruption that occurs when any human is tortured, but the fact that doctors now have the ability to determine what caused this once College Student to suffer a terrible fate by being killed by torture in North Korea.
While I am a very big supporter on the way Gina Kolata wrote this article, such as describing the autopsy as well as the parents perspective on their son’s death in North Korea, I believe that were some issues that could have been explained better by the author. First off, though she mentions “Warmbiers imprisonment in North Korea” (Kolata), she doesn't exactly go into detail into what caused this American student to be imprisoned in the worst country in the world. Another issue that I also thought Kolata could have expanded and improved on was more on the political ramifications and the outroar that America people acquired from this terrible tragedy. “In the United States, most families would opt for palliative care for a relative in a vegetative state resembling Mr. Warmbier’s, she added. That would consist of providing pain medications and sedatives to soothe them” (Kolata). By introducing this theme into her work a little more, I believe it would the reader with a good metal picture and realization what occurs to prisoners in North Korea. While Kolata has a couple issues in her article, the overall theme that I took away was that I was impressed because she did great job analyzing the events that this young man who suffered hell in North Korea.
4 comments:
Kolata, Gina. “Otto Warmbier Suffered Extensive Brain Damage, Coroner Confirms.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/health/otto-warmbier-north-korea-autopsy.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%2BScience&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/health/otto-warmbier-north-korea-autopsy.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection
From Justin’s review of “Otto Warmbier Suffered Extensive Brain Damage, Coroner Confirms.”, I felt that I was able to learn many new things that he explained. Justin incited many great details in his review. For example, Justin did a good job explaining the background of the story and kept the timeline throughout the review very clear. This made it easy for readers to understand his review. Secondly, Justin added quotes from the article which gives the reader another incite about what others thought about the case. For example, Justin used the quote “The images clearly showed that his brain had been starved of oxygen and that large tracts of cells had died, Dr. Sammarco said. The medical diagnosis is anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy”. Also, I thought Justin did a good job on adding his own thoughts and opinions into the review rather than just straight facts.
Although, Justin could add a few more ideas to his review to make it perfect. First, I think that Justin should add more about the forensics part of the crime. Along with this, there are parts where Justin can make his point more clear and concise through the review.
Overall, I think Justin did a good job summarizing the article and adding his own thoughts and opinions. I found this review interesting and informative because I have never heard of this case and I am happy Justin brought up this article for his review.
Alex Rizzo
Oct. 12th, 2017
Mr. Ippolito
Current Event #4
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/health/otto-warmbier-north-korea-autopsy.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection
Justin McCarthy
The first three things that were well represented in Justin’s current event was they way in which he summarized the article, the way in which he creatively organized his thoughts, and finally the way he included his own thoughts. It is important to summarize the article effectively in order for the reader to follow what the author is talking about. Without a good summary, the reader will become lost. Also, McCarthy creatively inserted his own thoughts throughout the current event which made it easier to read and more entertaining. Finally, most of Justin’s thoughts were unique to himself which is important because without creativity and a unique style of writing, the current event becomes very boring.
One important idea to note that would make Justin’s analysis better would be to include better grammar. On the very first line he mentions that the current event is ironic because it is in North Korea but really there is nothing ironic. Another thing that Justin can work on is his to keep his own ideas out of the summary of the article so his own thoughts do not cloud up what the summary of the article is.
One thing I was impressed with was the amount of work that Justin had to have put into this current event. It is obvious that he spent time working and editing this current event so that it was a good response essay. I think Justin did a great job.
Kolata, Gina. “Otto Warmbier Suffered Extensive Brain Damage, Coroner Confirms.” The New
York Times, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2017.
www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/health/otto-warmbier-north-korea-autopsy.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%2BScience&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection
Justin wrote an excellent response to the article “Otto Warmbier Suffered Extensive Brain Damage, Coroner Confirms” by Gina Kolata. He begins with a succinct and informative summary that provides the reader with all of the necessary information. He is able to effectively and efficiently describe that a coroner found that Warmbier suffered extensive brain damage after returning from North Korea in a vegetative state. Justin also did a great job of including a quote that helps the reader understand the the extent of the brain damage that resulted in the student’s death. Justin quoted Kolata’s quote of the coroner who explained that, “The images clearly showed that his brain had been starved of oxygen and that large tracts of cells had died, Dr. Sammarco said. The medical diagnosis is anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.” I also loved how Justin connected this article to North Korea and the treatment that political prisoners are facing at the hands of the North Koreans.
Although Justin wrote a great current event report, there are two places that he could improve upon. I think that Justin focused way too much on the torture angle, especially considering the fact that the coroner said that she couldn’t confirm torture. If he is going to mention it so often in his article, he should have included the fact that no one has been able to confidently determine that. Justin also accused the author of not explaining why the American student was imprisoned even though she did within the first couple paragraphs of her article. Justin did not do a thorough job of reading the article and shouldn’t have let his own opinions overpower his current event response.
After reading Justin’s response to Kolata’s article , I have learned about an important conclusion that a coroner who conducted Warmbier’s autopsy reached. I now have a deeper understanding of what Otto faced while he was imprisoned in North Korea and how Dr. Sammarco’s observations led her to her conclusions. I will definitely stay updated on this story in case any new information surfaces concerning the imprisonment and death of Warmbier and any other American political prisoners in North Korea.
Justin did a very good job in reviewing the article. He was able to organize his thoughts into sentences that flowed great. I was able to understand throughout and he never lost my attention. Justin was also able to explain the situation to the reader clearly and constructively. I was able to read and understand exactly what was going on with Otto and why he was in his current state. He was also able to use descriptive words to help the reader stay intrigued in the review. Without those words it wouldn’t have been as interesting.
While Justin did a great job in summarizing the story I felt he definitely could have used quotes better in the article. If he had used quotes more it would have helped the reader understand where the original author was coming from.
I thought that Justin did a great job and I was really intrigued because this article was very interesting and very informative.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/health/otto-warmbier-north-korea-autopsy.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection
Justin McCarthy
Post a Comment