Broadway star Nick Cordero is "profoundly weak" and "interacts with his eyes," according to his wife, fitness trainer Amanda Kloots.
In an Instagram post Thursday, Kloots, who is now able to visit Cordero in the intensive care unit of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, explained that her husband is "answering questions by looking up for yes and down for no."
Cordero, who has been on a ventilator since early April, also can move his jaw when he is alert, Kloots added.
"Imagine how you feel getting the flu and how it can take your body a full week to recover," she wrote. "Now imagine how Nicks body feels, all that he has gone through and how long it will take him to recover. This will take time, a long time."
Cordero, 41, went to the hospital on March 31 with what he believed was pneumonia, but soon after, he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and put on a ventilator. The Tony-nominated star of Broadway hits including "Bullets Over Broadway," has faced complications in his fight against the virus, including having his right leg amputated, battling multiple infections and suffering severe lung damage, according to Kloots.
He has also lost 65 pounds and will likely remain hospitalized for several more months. When he is able to be discharged, according to Kloots, he will go to a rehabilitation facility for a year before finally coming home.⠀"I have been doing passive physical therapy on him to help in any way I can to get him stronger, to keep his joints moving and engage his muscles. He cannot move his body yet," Kloots wrote Thursday. "He has had some minor blood infections that are causing little blood pressure issues although those are under control. His vent settings are getting better and his numbers are trending in a better direction. He is relatively stable."
Kloots, who married Cordero in 2017 and shares a 1-year-old son, Elvis, with him, admitted that her husband's fight against COVID-19 has been "defeating" at times, but she strives to "give him any and all energy I can." Now that she is able to spend time with him in person, she makes sure she's "smiling and singing in his room every day."
"I tell him goals that the doctors would like to see. I insist that he CAN do this!" she wrote. "I’m just not going to mope around and feel sad for myself or him. That is not would Nick would want me to to do. That is not my personality. I fight and I will continue to fight for Nick every single day. With God on our side anything can happen!"
