Youtuber who suffered brain injury in car accident will have his life support turned off as family make 'agonising' decision

Andrew Cross’ elder sister Jenna Spooner has told his fans that “after much prayer, information gathering, and discussion” the family have made the “agonising” choice to allow his life support machine to be turned off, just over four weeks after the incident.

Her full statement read: “After much prayer, information gathering, and discussion, we’ve made the difficult decision to remove Andrew from life support tomorrow morning (March 3). Even in making this agonizing decision, we have not and will not stop asking for Andrew’s healing.”

It was just three days ago that Spooner had informed fans that it was approaching the maximum amount of time that her brother was allowed length of care in the Intensive Care Unit. Posting on a Caring Bridge page which has been set up to update Cross’ friends and fans on his condition, she said on Friday (February 28) that “important decisions have to be made”.

She said at the time that “the two primary options are transfer to comfort care (meaning no more life support) or an LTACH (long term acute care hospital) facility in Denver, which would require surgically adding screws to stabilize his spine, a tracheostomy and PEG (feeding tube) prior to making that trip”. She added: “We’ve been extensively reviewing medical studies and other info, getting second (and third and fourth) opinions, consulting with Andrew’s doctors, and doing all we can to consider every possibility.”

She also said that “the statistics about Andrew’s likelihood to have a moderate recovery, or even regain consciousness, are discouraging. And it seems like the more info we get, the bleaker the picture.”

Spooner revealed in her latest post that Cross may live for “minutes or weeks” after his life support machine is turned off. “The medical team has explained there’s no predictable timeline for how long someone will live once life support is removed - it could be minutes, days, or weeks. We’re praying it will be decades!”, she said. Explaining why the family had decided to turn off Cross’ life support machine, Spooner went on: “ We know that a life dependent on machines is not what Andrew wants. It’s not God’s will for Andrew, either.”

Many fans have left comments on the post, saying they are praying for both him and his family and expressing their sadness at the latest health update. One person said: “I'm so very sorry to hear that Andrew hasn't progressed in healing as had been hoped for.” Another said: “My thoughts are with y'all this morning. Sending love, strength and prayers for you all.”

Influencer Andrew Cross, who is known as 'Desert Drifter' on YouTube, was seriously injured in a car accident on the night of Friday January 31. The 34-year-old social media star, who is a desert adventurer and former Grand Canyon tour guide, sustained a severe traumatic brain injury in the accident. He was rushed to hospital and immediately given brain surgery to bring a bleed on his brain under control. He has been in intensive care ever since.

Just less than a week after his accident, doctors discovered the influencer had suffered a series of strokes. Then, at the beginning of February, Cross had an MRI scan to discover the extent of his injuries and his family were told the star had ‘severe injuries’ and his ‘prognosis [was] not good’. But, by the end of the week his wife Evelyn shared that her husband has taken a ‘positive step in the right direction’ with his recovery. Things took a turn, however, at the beginning of last week when Spooner revealed that the star was being treated for pneumonia.

Cross, who set up his Youtube channel in 2023 and has 400,000 followers, was on his way back from filming a video at Bears Ears National Monument, Utah, when he was involved in the car accident. The precise circumstances of the incident are still not clear.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by family friend Hannah Schweitzer to help Cross’ family pay for his medical expenses. At the time of writing, on the morning of Monday March 3, more than $457,000 (around £362,000) has been raised.