UPDATE: 10:00 p.m., Oct. 3, 2025
At 10:24 a.m., Austen Dawson posted on Facebook, “Hey I’m alive and I’m AWAKE ! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MESSAGED ME AND WERE PRAYING FOR ME! BY GRACE OF GOD I’M ALIVE AND BREATHING.”
The picture Austen Dawson took accompanying the post shows him in a hospital bed with bandages and a hat on his head and healing black eyes. He holds a golf ball in his mouth.
The post came after his father, Adam Dawson, posted on Sept. 30 that Austen Dawson had woken up. Austen Dawson was previously in a medically induced coma due to his injuries, which included significant head trauma.
Austen Dawson has since reposted various posts made by family members and friends while he was in the coma.
Original Post: 7:46 p.m., Oct. 2, 2025
Austen Dawson, a DoorDash driver that was hospitalized following a fight on the University of Idaho campus, is showing signs of recovery, family members say.
Adam Dawson, Austen Dawson’s father, posted on Facebook on Sept. 30 that Austen Dawson was awake. “They were finally able to wake him up. They tried a few times over the last week and he wasn’t breathing on his own yet. He’s awake now!” Adam Dawson wrote.
Austen Dawson, 26, was Life-Flighted to a hospital in Lewiston and put into a medically induced coma late Sept. 24. According to the Moscow Police Department press log, he experienced a seizure as a result of battery.
Adam Dawson shared a short video on Oct. 2 that showed Austen Dawson walking around the hospital with some assistance.
“He is strong and he is with us,” Adam Dawson wrote. “He brushed his teeth today without help!”
The other individual involved, a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, has since been removed from membership.
“No one is willing to tell him what happened! He’s going to be so upset that another human would do this to someone else. Mortified! He has no idea what happened, yet! He wouldn’t have left someone to die! Ever! He also wouldn’t intentionally do this to someone else! Ever!” Adam Dawson wrote.
Adam Dawson has not responded to The Argonaut for comment.
MPD has not released any updates since Sept. 26 and no arrests have been made. UI has not made any official statement on the matter.
Dakota Steffen can be reached at [email protected].