Broadway star Nick Cordero is still fighting for his life, after being diagnosed with COVID-19. He's still critically ill, even though he's now COVID negative & no longer in a coma.@GayleKing spoke with Amanda Kloots about her husband's condition & why she's holding onto hope. pic.twitter.com/r1yhBuKpua— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) July 2, 2020
July 2 (UPI) -- Nick Cordero will likely need a double lung transplant to live his best life, according to his wife, Amanda Kloots.
Kloots shared a health update and a message of hope during an interview on CBS This Morning Thursday, more than four months after Cordero, a Broadway actor, was first hospitalized.
Cordero was initially diagnosed with pneumonia in March but later tested positive for COVID-19. He was hospitalized and placed in a medically-induced coma March 31 and had his right leg amputated in April after suffering blood clots in his legs.
Cordero woke up from his coma May 12 and is no longer positive for COVID-19 but is still experiencing complications from the virus. Kloots said in April that Cordero's lungs were "severely damaged" by COVID-19 and look as if the actor was a smoker for 50 years.
On Thursday, Kloots said Cordero's recovery has been a "vicious cycle."
"He is doing okay. He's stable. Nick's body is extremely weak. Muscles have atrophied, so he can't move his body yet," Kloots said. "He can still open his eyes, and when he is alert and awake he'll answer commands by looking up or down, yes or no questions."
"I call it the vicious circle or the ICU dance because you just feel like you're in this momentum of going around, around, around like a hamster wheel. And I just want to get us out of the hamster wheel," she added.
Kloots said it's hard to gauge how much Cordero understands about his health issues. She said their "ultimate goal" now is for Cordero to have a double lung transplant.
"We think that that is most likely the possibility. A 99% chance that he would be needing that in order to live the kind of life that I know my husband would want to live," Kloots said.
"That is a long road away and a lot of things would have to line up in order for Nick to be a candidate for that," she added.
Kloots said she still believes there is a positive outcome to come for Cordero and that she hasn't given up hope.
"He's fighting. I see it every day. Nick's doctor sees it. And as long as he's in there and fighting, I'll continue to fight with him," she said.
Cordero and Kloots married in September 2017 and have a 1-year-old son, Elvis.
