SAN ANTONIO — A local musician is in the hospital after a tree branch in his yard fell on him.
Juan Cantu spent the last week in the hospital and is looking at extensive hospital and physical therapy bills. His family is hoping his fans and regulars will come to their aid.
For decades, Cantu has brought music to the patrons at Mi Tierra as a member of Trio Monterrey.
"He loves to work and especially what he does," said his daughter Iris Cantu-Delacruz
This June, he even joined KENS 5 in welcoming the Spurs new draft Victor Wembanyama to San Antonio. But now, the music is on pause.
"He's going to be bored at home," Cantu-Delacruz said.
The seventy-seven-year-old was trimming a tree in his back yard Sunday when a limb snapped off and landed on him.
"The trunk was hanging in the neighbors yard, and when we cut it loose the rest snapped off and hit me," Cantu told KENS 5 in Spanish.
Cantu-Delacruz, said she and the family have not left his bedside since.
"He just had surgery on Tuesday. And yeah. It's. It's pretty bad," she said. "He won't be able to fully recover, the doctor says, until anywhere between six months to a year.
She believes the hardest thing for her father will be spending that much time away from work.
"Probably the only time he missed work was probably when COVID had happened. But even then, like, he never missed a day. But he's been there for 51 years and never missed a day."
Cantu-Delacruz says her father is going to need months of physical therapy but she's not sure how the family is going to afford it. She says she's hopeful her father's regulars will step up to help once they get the word out.
“We honestly right now don't have the funds for that,” Cantu-Delacruz said.
You can learn more about Cantu's accident and recovery at the GoFundMe page set up to help the family pay expenses and medical bills.