Tejano singer Emilio Navaira, who has been clinging to his life over the past few days after suffering injuries in a bus crash, is now in stable condition and will need plenty of time to recover, his doctors said.

Dr. Alex Valadka, director of neurotrauma services at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and vice chair of neurosciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, described Navaira as stable, the Associated Press reports. Valadka operated on Emilio Navaira to remove a blood clot and previously said the singer “might not make it.”

The 45-year-old San Antonio-born musician is now in stable condition, Valadka said, but his recovery will take a long time.

The medical staff treating Navaira resorted to a research technique that meant hypothermia was used to lower his body temperature, in order to keep Navaira’s brain from further swelling, according to the AP. Doctors began raising Navaira’s body temperature Tuesday.

“In his case, that’s good,” Valadka said. “We’re still afraid something adverse could happen. The main thing we’re watching continues to be the pressure in his brain.”

The accident that led to Navaira’s critical condition occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning, when the tour bus he was driving from a performance he and his band had given at a Houston club Saturday night crashed into an interchange barrier on Interstate 610 in Bellaire, an enclave in Houston.

There were six people on the bus. All sustained injuries but Navaira’s were the most serious. He was propelled through the windshield and had fractures to his back and other bruises, as well as the brain injury. The others were treated for cuts and bruises and released, while bass player Rick Vega was still in hospital as of Tuesday suffering from abdominal injuries.

Joe Casias, Navaira's agent since 1989, previously told the AP that the Tejano musician enjoyed driving the tour bus and often did. It appears though that Navaira was not licensed to drive the 26,000-pound bus. The crash is still being investigated.

Casias also said earlier this week that police was investigating whether alcohol had been a factor in the accident.

Navaira received the 2003 Grammy Award for best Tejano album, for “Acuerdate.” Tejano is the name given to folk music made by Texans of Hispanic descent.