The wife of Broadway star Nick Cordero is asking people across the country to sing and dance for her husband as he fights for his life in the ICU against COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
"He just needs to get better but we are ready for him to come home, Cordero's wife, celebrity fitness instructor Amanda Kloots, told "Good Morning America." "And he's got a whole lot of living to do."
Cordero, 41, a Tony-nominated actor, initially went to the hospital in late March with what they thought was pneumonia, according to Kloots. He later tested positive for COVID-19 and was put in a medically-induced coma to help his breathing.
When Kloots, who is mom to 10-month-old son named Elvis, got to FaceTime with her husband on Sunday, via a nurse, she sang and played for him Elvis Presley’s "Got A Lot O’ Livin’ To Do."
When the song played, Cordero's blood pressure rose, so Kloots asked her followers on Instagram to sing and dance to the song themselves to support Cordero.
"I will continue to sing, dance and play this song everyday until you are home Nick Cordero!" Kloots, who lives in Los Angeles, wrote on Instagram.
The illness virtually snuck up on Cordero, the former star of "Bullets Over Broadway," who first just experienced fatigue, according to Kloots.
"We were watching the news and we were trying to decide if this was the coronavirus," said Kloots. "It didn't seem like Nick had the symptoms. He just had this extreme fatigue. We just thought we'd ride it out. We'd see what happened [and[ just isolate because all he wanted to do was sleep."
"The tipping point happened one morning. We were eating breakfast and I asked Nick to go change Elvis' diaper and I heard a huge thump," she said. "I ran into the bedroom and he had fainted."
Kloots, who is in Los Angeles with Elvis, is not allowed to visit Cordero in the hospital.
"I'm trying to understand everything from afar," she said. "It's awkward when you're sitting and waiting and you don't know what's going on and you can't be there and everything is happening so fast."
"Once he went under, we didn't have any communication at all," Kloots added. "I've been talking to the nurses and doctor and they've been wonderful."
In addition to seeing Cordero via FaceTime, Kloots said she sends her husband a daily home video so that a nurse can show it to him when he wakes up each morning.
"If I can tell Nick anything, it's that we love him and it's going to be okay," said Kloots. "And that Elvis and I are okay and that we are healthy and we are waiting for him and he just needs to get better ... and he's got a whole lot of living to do."
