By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 54 minutes ago
HOUSTON - Raul Navaira remembers seeing his brother, the Tejano music star known to his fans simply as Emilio, signing autographs after an Easter weekend club date in Houston.
Raul Navaira climbed aboard the tour bus that Emilio routinely drove and went to sleep for the 200-mile trip home to San Antonio.
"It was like any other night," Raul Navaira, 40, said Wednesday.
Except it wasn't.
"The next thing I knew, I felt stuff falling over me," he said.
At about 5 a.m. Sunday, the 26,000-pound motor coach slammed into a collection of freeway barrels that mark the interchange of two highways in Bellaire, a southwest Houston enclave. Emilio was thrown through the windshield, injuring him severely and requiring two brain surgeries, the most recent on Tuesday evening.
The 45-year-old father of five and Grammy winner is fighting for his life.
"It was weird," his brother said. "Right away. I thought of him. I knew he was driving. I go: 'Emilio, you OK?' I heard a 'Yeh, yeh,' but it actually was our drummer beneath the rubble."
He said by the time he made his way out of the bus, paramedics had strapped his brother to a gurney to take him to the hospital.
"They didn't let me get to him," Raul Navaira said. "I just shouted out that I loved him. ... Maybe I was in a daze. By the time I got out of the bus, everybody was there and helping."
Doctors worried about the condition of Emilio Navaira took him into surgery a second time Tuesday, after medication failed to lower pressure that began to build in his brain around a bruise where they removed a blood clot two days earlier.
"We all agreed it was heading in a negative direction and we thought we'd intervene before it got to a critical point," said Dr. Alex Valadka, director of neurotrauma services at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and vice chairman of neurosciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
He said he reopened an incision made during Navaira's initial surgery Sunday and removed a piece of bone that had been taken out and put back following that first operation.
"After the surgery, the pressures in the brain were lower and Emilio tolerated the surgery fine without any problems or complications," Valadka said.
He said Navaira remained in critical condition but described him as improved and "perhaps better off than he was a few days ago."
"He is still in a coma," Valadka said. "We are still giving him some medication so it's difficult to say at this point how much is from the severity of his injury and how much is the medication. If he continues to remain stable, we'll gradually try to cut back some of the medication."
Recovery could take months.
"The general pattern with someone with injuries of his severity, you think of prolonged recovery, rehabilitation and a lot of therapy," he said.The wreck remains under investigation. Several members of Navaira's band, including Raul, came away with less serious injuries. Raul had a black eye Wednesday and said he had scrapes and bruises and a sprained ankle but was otherwise well.
His brother and their group have released more than a dozen albums, including "Acuerdate," which won the Grammy for best Tejano album in 2003.
Police in Bellaire said Navaira was not licensed to drive the tour bus. Authorities were awaiting the results of blood-alcohol tests and said it was possible he may have fallen asleep.
Raul Navaira said his brother was accustomed to the long drives each weekend. Asked about the possibility of alcohol being involved, he said: "I don't know."
"My heart hurts and goes out to my brother and my other brothers of the band," he said. "It's just sad they have to go through this."
The group had planned to be in California for a tour starting this weekend.
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