Broadway star Nick Cordero has lost 65 pounds amid COVID-19 battle, wife Amanda Kloots says
Broadway star Nick Cordero has "a long, long road ahead" in his battle to recover from COVID-19, according to his wife, fitness trainer Amanda Kloots.
In a chat with fans on Instagram Live Wednesday evening, Kloots explained that Cordero, has spent more than two months at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and will likely remain hospitalized for several more months.
When he is able to be discharged, she added, he will head to a rehabilitation facility for a year before finally coming home.
"He's so weak that he still can't move," she said. "His muscles are definitely atrophying. He's lost 65 pounds."
Cordero, 41, went to the emergency room on March 30 with what he believed was pneumonia, but within 24 hours he was admitted to the hospital and later diagnosed with COVID-19. To help his breathing, the actor was put into a medically induced coma.
"He didn't have a fever. He didn't have a cough. He had a sense of smell, he had a sense of taste, so we really didn't think it was COVID, especially [because he doesn't have] preexisting conditions," Kloots told "Good Morning America" last month. "Very shortly, after about only two days, he was on a ventilator."
In April, doctors amputated Cordero's right leg after blood thinners used to help with clotting caused other problems, Kloots has said. Additionally, she has said that his lungs have been "severely damaged" by the virus, and that during his time in the hospital, he has battled multiple infections.
On Wednesday evening, Kloots told her Instagram followers that she's told Cordero about the amputation over FaceTime, though she added, "It is hard when I'm talking to Nick to understand what he's understanding."
"I've told him about the amazing prosthetics that are available now, and I told him he's gonna be fine," she said.
Kloots, Cordero and their 12-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. A GoFundMe account set up by friends to help Kloots and Cordero cover medical bills and make their new home wheelchair-accessible has raised over $574,000.
Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to show that Cordero went to the emergency room on March 30, not March 31.
