Popular YouTuber, Andrew Cross has d!ed at the of 36 after being taken off life support a month after he was involved in a ‘severe’ car accident in Colorado.
Andrew, known as ‘Desert Drifter’ to half a million fans on YouTube, died peacefully on Tuesday, March 4, having sustained a serious brain injury in the January 31 crash.
‘Andrew’s spirit is free, surrounded by light and love,’ the explorer’s sister, Jenna Spooner, announced on the CaringBridge website.
She told how those with Andrew before his passing put him on a mobile ventilator and walked a loop around the ICU with him, staff lining the hallway to ‘honor him’.
‘Then in the room, friends and family read scripture, prayed, and sang during the process of removing life support and for over an hour afterwards.’
The family said earlier this week they had made the ‘difficult decision’ to remove Andrew from life support, after acknowledging his discomfort in late February.
Andrew described his vlogging as ‘exploration and adventure with a historical twist’, documenting desert tours and mountain climbs for hundreds of thousands of viewers.
The Virginia-born adventurer was tragically involved in a two-car accident at the end of January when he was rear-ended at high speed while stopped.
The Mesa County Coroner’s Office in Colorado confirmed to TMZ on Wednesday that Andrew had died from injuries sustained in the crash.
Jenna Spooner had written just a day before that the coming together of family of friends to help Andrew let go was ‘peaceful and beautiful’.
He ‘really lived life to the fullest’, she reflected in a message to thousands of supporters.
‘His story and impact isn’t over yet. It’s been wonderful to get to know him in new ways as we’ve seen photos and stories shared by so many.
‘We look forward to more of that as we honor a life well lived.’
Jenna announced on Sunday that the family had made the decision to remove Andrew from life support.
They said it could ‘be minutes, days or weeks’ before he died after turning off support.
‘We know that a life dependent on machines is not what Andrew wants. It’s not God’s will for Andrew, either,’ she said.
The family had previously reported that Andrew was stable, but had become more visibly uncomfortable, ‘grimacing with procedures like brushing his teeth or adjusting his position in bed’.
Andrew’s family had raised over $482,000 from a $510,000 goal on GoFundMe to help support his wife, Evelyn, financially for medical bills, food, or any other expenses that may come up.
Cross was married to the speech-language pathologist for over three years.
Source: Linda Ikeji Blog
