The actor has been battling COVID-19 for over a month.
7 min read
Broadway star Nick Cordero, who has been battling COVID-19 for more than a month, has emerged from a medically induced coma, according to his wife, fitness trainer Amanda Kloots.
Cordero, 41, who has starred in various Broadway hits, including “Waitress” and “Bullets Over Broadway,” has been sedated in the intensive care unit of Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles since April 1.
For the past few weeks, Kloots has provided daily updates on Cordero’s status, encouraging her 211,000 Instagram followers to share footage of themselves dancing to his song “Live Your Life” using the hashtag #WakeUpNick.
Soon, she said Tuesday, they may be able to use the hashtag #CodeRocky, which was created to celebrate COVID-19 patients being discharged from the hospital.
“Nick is awake! He is extremely weak, so weak that he can’t close his mouth,” Kloots wrote on Instagram. “But he is following commands, which means mental status is coming back! This is a long road, a very long road. We are on our way to #CodeRocky.”
Cordero was first hospitalized on March 31 for what he believed was pneumonia. He later tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, and was put into a medically induced coma to help his breathing.
In late April, Cordero had his right leg amputated after blood thinners used to help with clotting caused blood pressure issues and internal bleeding, according to Kloots. Additionally, the actor’s lungs were “severely damaged,” she explained.
“[His lungs] look almost like he’s been a smoker for 50 years. They’re that damaged,” Kloots said. “There are holes in his lungs where obviously you don’t want holes to be.”
Kloots, Cordero and their 11-month-old son, Elvis, recently moved from New York City to Los Angeles so that Cordero could star in a West Coast production of “Rock Of Ages,” which he also starred in on Broadway. Kloots said on April 30 that Cordero’s hospitalization has been “very hard to deal with.”
“I’ve definitely let myself cry. I have definitely let myself scream in rage and just be frustrated, but I think what I always come around to is what will help Nick the most right now? What will help me the most right now?” she said.
“It serves me no purpose just to sit and worry and go down a hole, so I’m not,” she continued. “If I can give anything to Nick, it’s light and it’s positivity and it’s strength from afar. I also have to be a mom and be here for my son, and I know Nick would want me to do that for Elvis.”
Friends set up a GoFundMe to help Kloots and Cordero cover medical bills and make their new home in Los Angeles wheelchair accessible. It has already raised over $500,000.
For more on this story, watch “Good Morning America” tomorrow at 7 a.m. ET for an exclusive interview with Kloots.
