Broadway actor Nick Cordero continues to fight for his life after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. He has been hospitalized in Los Angeles for three months.
His wife, Amanda Kloots, said he is still seriously ill, even though he is now COVID negative and is no longer in a coma. The Tony nominee had to have his amputated leg due to virus complications.
Kloots told Gayle King, co-host of “CBS This Morning,” that the “ultimate goal” is for Cordero to get a double lung transplant but “many things would have to be aligned” to be a candidate.
Read more of their conversation below.
Amanda Kloots: He’s fine. He is stable. Nick’s body is extremely weak. The muscles have been atrophied, so you cannot move your body yet. … You can still open your eyes, and when you are alert and awake, you will respond to commands looking up or down, yes or no. When I ask him, he will even try to smile or move his jaw. All the nurses have said that they answer my questions the best.
Gayle King: The last time we spoke, you called it a really bumpy roller coaster. How do you describe it now?
Kloots: I call it the vicious circle or the UCI dance Because you feel like you’re in this urge to go round, round, round like a hamster wheel. And I just want to get us off the hamster wheel.
King: Yes. What do you think Nick understands about what happened to him or is happening to him?
Kloots: Unfortunately, that is really difficult to try to assess. … We have told you a kind of very general statement of what has happened. Just because we still don’t know what he understands.
King: Do you think he knows that his leg has been amputated?
Kloots: I have told you that.
King: Oh, did you tell him?
Kloots: I did. I told him … and I told him there are amazing prosthetics And I told him that he had been talking to amputees … and that I was trying to encourage him.
King: What exactly needs to happen for us to know that Nick is making progress on the road to recovery?
Kloots: In a perfect world, because we expect a perfect world,
King: Yes me too.
Kloots: Our ultimate goal would be: make you a candidate for a double lung transplant.
King: Oh, she’s going to need a double lung transplant, are you saying?
Kloots: We think this is very likely the possibility. A 99% chance that I would need it to live the kind of life that I know my husband would want to live. … That’s a long way off and a lot of things would have to be lined up for Nick to be a candidate for that.
King: There has to be a positive result, he believes, on the other side.
Kloots: There must be. And I say, I say, “You’re going to get out of this hospital, honey. I think so, I know you can … Let’s dance again. You’re going to hug your son again.” … My phrase is: “Don’t get lost, focus.”
King: Despite everything you’ve been through, and you’ve been through a lot, you’re not defeated.
Kloots: I just feel like when I’m in that room with him and then when I get home, don’t get me wrong, I have my days, but I have to be determined.
King: In your times when it is difficult for you, how do you overcome it?
Kloots: Well luckily I have incredible support right now. I’m living with my family and, you know, I came home the other day feeling really exhausted and sad. And I let it out. I screamed and cried in front of my parents. … You have to have those days. You have to break up. That is natural. You know, I’m a strong person, but even strong people break. And that is fine. You have to drill down to be able to rebuild yourself again.
King: I was wondering, Amanda, if you’ve ever been there … have the doctors told you, “Amanda, is it time to let him go?” Have they ever told you that?
Kloots: They told me four times that it will not survive. Sometimes even he won’t survive overnight, but he has. He has. … I think, Gayle, that God is the only person who will decide when and if my husband leaves. So I will never try to play that role. … he is fighting. I see him every day. Nick’s doctor sees it. And while he is there and fighting, I will continue to fight with him. … I tell him every day before I go, I say, “Well, this is what you should focus on. The two of us sitting in our new house … Elvis is in bed and we are listening to ‘Our House’ in our house in Laurel Canyon. “
King: Oh, I love that photo. I love to imagine that. “Our house”, the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young “Our house”? … Amanda, sing it. I love that song. I love it.
Kloots: He says, “Watching the fire for hours and hours as I listen to you play your love songs all night for me.”
King: What a perfect letter for your life, what you’re going through now.
Kloots: I know.
King: How often can you see it now?
Kloots: I go every day
King: You posted a photo of your hands together.
Kloots: You know, there are so many cables everywhere. You know, I just want to jump on his bed and hug him and grab and squeeze him. But, you know, you have to be very careful with everything that is happening, so I take his hand … and I’m waiting for the day when he holds my hand.
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