Prominent adventurer Andrew Cross has died aged 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, 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.