UPDATE:  The Navaira Family in Studio 07-18-08

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Emilio Accident Pics

KXTN One on One w/ Emilio

Emilio Press Conference in Houston (3-24-08)

Emilio Prayer Vigil Pictures

Emilios Family In Studio

Emilios Family In Studio (KXTN Audio)

Exclusive video of Emilios sons performing at the Premios A La Musica Latina show

Raul Navaira calls into the Jonny Ramirez Morning Show (4-14-08)

Emilio Navaira press conference (4-18-08)

Raul Navaira stops by the KXTN Studios (exclusive interview) (4-22-08)




Update: 4-23-08
Houston - April, 23, 2008 – Emilio Navaira was transferred today to Memorial Hermann|TIRR in the Texas Medical Center to begin the next phase in his recovery.

For decades, Memorial Hermann|TIRR has been a leader in providing exceptional care to those who have been impacted by a disabling injury or illness. Memorial Hermann|TIRR has been named one of the leading rehabilitation hospitals by U.S. News and World Report for 18 consecutive years.

"Although he still has a long way to go in his recovery, this is certainly a major milestone, and it is very encouraging for him and his family," said Dr. Alex Valadka.

Thank you,
Alex Rodriguez

Update: 4-16-08
HOUSTON – April 16, 2008 - Emilio Navaira has reached a significant milestone in his recovery and has been upgraded to fair condition at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. Further medical updates will be provided at a press conference at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center on Friday, April 18 at 10 a.m.

Update: 4-7-08
HOUSTON - April 7, 2008, 12:30 p.m. - Doctors at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center are continuing to monitor the progress of Emilio Navaira. Emilio remains in critical condition.

Statement from the Navaira Family:

"We are deeply humbled by the unwavering support you have given our family. God has blessed our family in many ways throughout our lives and in each passing day I know he is listening to all of our prayers. We know that your prayers and well wishes are also helping. Emilio has looked into our eyes; he has held our hands as we have held his. Thank you again and we hope to share good news with you soon.

"The Navaira Family."

Update: 4-1-08
Houston, April 1, 2008 10:00 am  As part of the ongoing treatment to the various injuries sustained by Emilio Navaira in his tour bus accident, doctors performed a successful procedure on the afternoon of March 31 to treat a pseudoaneuurysm in Navaira's right lung.  A pseudoaneurysm is a contained rupture of an arterial wall.  Some pseudoaneuryms resolve spontaneously, while others (like Navaira's) require repair to prevent hemorrhage. Interventional radiologist Dr. Alan M. Cohen successfully treated the pseudoaneurysm using an endovascular approach.  Navaira is recovering well from yesterday's procedure; however, he remains in critical condition at Memorial Hermann -Texas Medical Center.

Update: 3-27-08
HOUSTON — Emilio Navaira is slowy regaining consciousness, according to an update just posted at the Web site of Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, the Houston hospital where he is being treated for injuries suffered in the Easter Sunday crash of his tour bus.

Update: 3-25-08 
HOUSTON — Doctors began gradually raising the body temperature of Tejano music star Emilio Navaira as they worked Tuesday to save his life and minimize the impact of a severe brain injury caused by Sunday's bus crash.

The process — necessary because surgeons had lowered the singer's temperature to 91.5 degrees Fahrenheit — involves raising his temperature by one-quarter of a degree per hour, said Jennifer Hart, spokeswoman for Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Navaira's temperature is expected to be normal, or 98.6 degrees, by midnight, Hart said. Physicians will continue to monitor the pressure in his brain and adjust his medication as necessary, she said.

"There is a chance he may not make it. You have to acknowledge that," Dr. Alex Valadka, a neurosurgeon treating Navaira, said at a Monday morning news conference at Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital.

"We're not going day to day, we're going hour by hour," Valadka said.

Still, doctors said they were encouraged that swelling to Navaira's brain had not worsened.

At a vigil Monday night in the Alamodome's south parking lot, Navaira's manager, Joe Casias, said the singer's condition had not changed.

Update: 3-24-08
HOUSTON (AP) - After being injured when his band bus crashed near Houston, Grammy-winning Tejano singer Emilio Navaira had surgery to remove a blood clot in his head, his agent said. 

Navaira had surgery Sunday to remove the clot, said agent Joe Casias. 

"The next 24 hours are very critical," Casias said. "....on behalf of his family, we hope his fans will pray for Emilio."

According to the Houston Chronicle, Navaira was one of eight people injured in the crash. He was flown by a medical helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where hospital administrator Lisa Lagrone listed him in critical condition.

Navaira, 45, and his band Rio had played at the Houston nightclub Hallabaloo's on Saturday night. According to the Chronicle, the tour bus was traveling north on Loop 610 by Southwest Freeway when it struck a set of freeway barrels at about 5 a.m.

The Chronicle quoted Bellaire police Sgt. Daniel Kerr as saying, "For some reason, the driver lost control and hit the barrels. We don't know why yet. He (the driver) was ejected through the front window."

Kerr would not confirm later Sunday if Navaira was driving, but other officials at the scene said Navaira was behind the wheel at the time.

Kerr said a blood test would be administered to the driver but that there was no evidence at the scene indicating alcohol was a factor in the accident.

Navaira and most of his family call San Antonio home. Family friends said much of the family was in Houston at the hospital and trying to avoid the media. They could not be reached for comment.

"I think they got the family in hiding. They do not want to talk to anybody," said Joey Rodriguez, manager for David Lee Garza y Los Musicales, a close friend of Navaira for many years who was in touch with the family.

Late Sunday, hospital officials were not releasing any additional details on Navaira's condition.

However, another family friend who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the family, said Navaira suffered serious head injuries in the accident. He said doctors had to open his skull to relieve some of the pressure.

"They told me they had to induce a coma to help relieve that pressure," Rodriguez said. "They told me that had given him a 20 percent chance (of surviving), so the next 24 hours is critical."

Rodriguez and the family friend confirmed that family members said Navaira was driving the bus at the time of the accident.

Hospital officials scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference today at Hermann Conference Center for an update.

Other friends of the family said they saw Emilio's younger brother and bandmate, Raul, walking with the family at the hospital Sunday afternoon.

Eden Barrera Jr., a Navaira fan in Houston, said he drove by the accident site a few hours after it happened.

"I happened to have my camera, so I took a lot of photos," Barrera said. "When I saw the bus I was shocked. It was still up on the median and leaning to one side, so it almost rolled over.

"From what I could see there was nothing left of the front cab. The cab is completely smashed in. It is unbelievable that anyone could have survived the crash."

Dave Arevalo, a San Antonio community organizer and National Night Out organizer, who grew up with Emilio on the South Side, said a prayer vigil has been scheduled for 7 tonight at the Alamodome Parking Lot A.

The rally is scheduled next to a short street renamed Emilio Navaira Jr. Boulevard., after Emilio's father, in 2005.

"It's a little street, next to the bridge at Durango and Hoefgen," Arevalo said. "I felt we need to do something, like prayer. He has a lot of fans, and we want to use the power of prayer.

"Emilio's father used to have a barbershop called La Victoria Barbershop on that corner, which is right next to the Victoria Courts."

Navaira, known by his fans by one name — Emilio — began his 20-year-plus career as lead singer for David Lee Garza y Los Musicales.

At the time, he was studying for a music degree at Texas State University-San Marcos, then Southwest Texas State.

In 1989, he went solo and quickly rose as an influential force in the rising movement that became Tejano's massive renaissance in the early '90s. His early hits, many of them written by his brother Raul, included "Sensaciones," "Ya Ahora Es Tarde," "Como Le Hare" and "Que Diablos Me Pasa."

By the mid-'90s Emilio and Selena were considered the undisputed king and queen of Tejano, each having played in front of 70,000 fans at the Houston Astrodome for the Houston Rodeo's Go Tejano Day several times.

They also dominated the annual Tejano Music Awards. Selena was shot and killed in 1995.

In 1995, Navaira released "Life is Good," his first all-country CD, produced by noted Nashville wiz Barry Beckett. The next year Emilio followed that with "On the House," again produced by Beckett. Both CDs produced hits such as "It's Not the End of the World" and "Somebody Stop Me."

In 2003, Navaira won a Grammy for his CD "Acuerdate." His latest CD is "De Nuevo," released in September.

He was arrested for driving while intoxicated in September 2000. That followed his arrest in January of that year on charges of assaulting a girlfriend and resisting arrest, charges that were later dropped.

More info to come...

Updated 6-3-08

HOUSTON - Mike Tolson Reporting (Houston Chronicle) - A band member and another passenger on the bus that crashed with an allegedly intoxicated Emilio Navaira at the wheel have sued the famed Tejano star in state court because of the injuries they suffered.

Daniel Sandoval, drummer with the Grupo Rio band, and Pedro Perez, the grandfather of band member Eddie Perez, seek unspecified damages from Emilio Inc., the singer's corporate alter ego. The suit, which does not name Navaira individually, was filed last week in Houston and assigned to the district court of Judge Caroline E. Baker.

Two days after the crash, in which Navaira suffered a life-threatening brain injury, members of his band voiced nothing but support as he lay in a coma in a Houston hospital.

At that time, Sandoval, at home recovering from head and back injuries of his own, said he recalled little of the crash on West Loop 610. At about 5 a.m., Navaira lost control of the tour bus and crashed into traffic barrels near an intersection. Navaira flew through the windshield and the bus flipped on its side.

“I don't know what happened,” Sandoval said at the time. “I don't know if Emilio fell asleep, but he is in my prayers. I don't blame him for nothing.”

That sentiment changed with the lawsuit last week. The suit asks for unspecified damages for what it alleges are “serious, permanent and disabling injuries.”

Perez is the grandfather of bajo sexto player Eddie Perez, and initial reports said he was not hospitalized after the crash.

Navaira, 45, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 — more than twice the legal limit — while driving the tour bus that crashed early March 23, according to a report made public by the Bellaire Police Department. He could face charges of driving while intoxicated or felony intoxication assault for injuring five passengers on the bus. He also did not have the type of license required to drive the vehicle.

“Defendant was intoxicated well beyond the legal limit to operate a vehicle, was not licensed or properly trained, and was not properly rested to drive that night,” the lawsuit says.

Navaira and his band had performed at a Houston club hours before the crash and were returning to San Antonio. At the time, it was reported that only Navaira was seriously hurt.

He spent a month at Memorial Hermann Hospital and later was transferred to the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, where he is recovering from a significant brain injury.

The attorney for Sandoval and Perez, David L. Jones of Corpus Christi, did not return calls seeking comment. Navaira's attorney could not be reached either.

Sandoval said in a March interview that he was awake and standing next to one of the bunks in the bus when the accident happened.

“I don't remember anything. I blacked out,” Sandoval said. “When I woke up, I was trapped under the front floor. I was losing so much blood from my head I thought I was going to die.”

Navaira has been arrested twice on charges of driving while intoxicated. After the second arrest, he signed an affidavit saying he did not own a car. That spared him from having to equip his vehicle with an ignition interlock, an alcohol-detection device that a person must breathe into before starting and a standard condition of bond when facing a second DWI charge.

San Antonio  - Emilio Navaira was intoxicated when he crashed his tour bus Easter morning, according to a Harris County assistant district attorney familiar with the case.

A spokesman for the Bellaire Police Department, which investigated the wreck, refused to comment Thursday night on results of the blood-alcohol level test of Navaira.

However, a Houston television station reported on its 10 p.m. broadcast that the case has been classified as a DWI.

The San Antonio Express-News was unable to contact the prosecutor who provided the information to the Houston Chronicle.

Reached at his home late Thursday, Navaira's brother, Raul, said he hadn't heard of the news about the DWI classification.

“Right now, I do not want to comment. I really do not know the details,” he said. “As soon as I talk to the attorney and see what is going on, maybe I can talk.”

Emilio Navaira, 45, was driving his band's bus when it crashed in the early morning of March 23.

The singer was driving home from a late-night gig when the bus struck a set of freeway barrels on Loop 610 in southwestern Houston. He was thrown through the windshield and was the most critically injured, though other members of the band were also hurt.

Navaira has faced DWI charges before. He was arrested in September of 2000 when police said he was speeding in a pickup on Interstate 35. In that incident, a report indicated the singer had a strong smell of alcohol on his breath, bloodshot eyes and confused speech.

In January 2005, the Grammy Award winner was charged with DWI after an early morning rollover of an SUV on Loop 410 at I-35.

That time, he told police at the scene that “I was driving on the road and lost control because it was slippery.” Officers noted that he had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and a strong order of intoxicants.

The disposition of the case couldn't be determined late Thursday.

Since the latest incident, the singer has made great strides in recovering and on April 23 was transferred to a rehabilitation center. Doctors initially gave a grim prognosis for him and said he might not survive.

Before the rehabilitation center, Navaira was being treated at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston. He has undergone brain surgery twice — to remove a blood clot and to relieve pressure from swelling. Another procedure repaired a rupture of an arterial wall in his right lung.

While he didn't want to talk further about this week's development, his brother did open up when asked about his progress.

“He is doing good. He is coming along fast,” Raul Navaira said. “He played guitar to the song ‘Juntos,' just the chords.

“I am telling you, we thank God every day and we thank everybody for the prayers. We're taking it day by day.”

Asked how he was doing regarding his own injuries, Raul said he was doing well.

“I am doing good. We just got back from Monterrey (Mexico) where they had a little benefit for Emilio,” he said. “We went there to thank all the people for their prayers.
 

"Navaira opened his eyes and moved his arms and legs" on Wednesday evening, the update states.

Though his condition has improved, it adds, he is still in critical condition.

A preliminary accident report will be completed today, said Assistant Chief Byron Holloway with the Bellaire Police Deparment. Holloway said he didn't think the report would contain much information about the accident that hasn't already been made public. It will not include results of a toxicology test that was taken on Navaira on Sunday. Such tests are standard practice for serious accidents, according to a statement Holloway released earlier this week.