Broadway star Nick Cordero's COVID-19 recovery is 'back on an uphill climb,' says wife Amanda Kloots
Broadway star Nick Cordero is doing "slightly better" on Monday, but is "still very sick and battling a lot," according to his wife, fitness trainer Amanda Kloots.
Cordero, 41, who has been hospitalized since March 30, has been recovering from COVID-19 in a Los Angeles hospital.
Although he has tested negative for the virus for "weeks," currently, he is fighting "the fall out form the virus and from infections that arise from being in the ICU as long as he has," she added Monday.
"Nick suffered from some new lung infection in his lungs earlier this week, and since then, he's been slowly recovering, which is great," she told her Instagram followers over the weekend. "Day by day, hour by hour, he is getting better. He is slowly getting back to where he was before this infection came about, and that's good."
"We're just hoping that he can come off some more medications and that his settings on machines can come down," she continued. "Right now, we're just looking for slow, steady, small wins to keep him resting and recovering, which is great."
Kloots, who has not been able to see her husband in the hospital due to COVID-19 restrictions, thanked her followers for their support in an Instagram post Sunday. Kloots shared a video alongside the post of herself with her and Cordero's 11-month-old son Elvis.
"You guys have joined me now for 42 days, cheering Nick on to wake up and get off the vent," wrote Kloots, who does an Instagram live daily at 3 p.m. PT to sing and dance to Cordero's song "Live Your Life" with fans around the world. "This rollercoaster has been a wild one with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, but the support and energy that comes at 3pm ALWAYS puts me on a high!"
"We have had a tough week but Nick showed us yet again how strong he is and we are back on an uphill climb," she wrote.
Kloots, Cordero and 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.
Cordero, who also appeared in Broadway's "Waitress" and "Bullets Over Broadway," went to the Cedars Sinai emergency room on March 31 for what he believed was pneumonia. He was admitted to the hospital and later tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
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 his no preexisting conditions," Kloots told "Good Morning America" earlier this month. "Very shortly, after about only two days, he was on a ventilator."
There have been several complications since then. Last month, doctors amputated Cordero's right leg after blood thinners used to help with clotting caused other problems, Kloots said. She also said that his lungs have been "severely damaged" by the virus and resemble those of a person who has smoked for 50 years.
Just prior to the setback of a new lung infection, Kloots shared the good news with her followers on May 12 that Cordero was declared awake by doctors. Kloots' social media followers who had been using the hashtag #WakeUpNick switched to a new hashtag #OfftheVent to mark the next step in his recovery.
A GoFundMe account recently set up by friends to help Kloots and Cordero cover medical bills and make their new home in Los Angeles wheelchair-accessible has raised over $500,000.
Kloots and the couple's son are currently staying in the guest house of actor Zach Braff, a close friend of the couple.
Kloots and Corder have been receiving support from other celebrity friends as well, including actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, who sent Kloots and her family dinner, and the "Rock of Ages" cast in Los Angeles, who sang the Journey song "Don't Stop Believin'" in honor of Cordero.
"Rocky" star Sylvester Stallone sent a video to Cordero with words of encouragement after Kloots shared on Instagram that doctors use the term "CODE ROCKY!" when a COVID-19 patient is discharged from the hospital.
Kloots also thanked actress Jennifer Love Hewitt on Instagram Sunday night for setting up an outdoor movie night for Kloots and her family to enjoy.
ABC News' Lesley Messer contributed to this report.
Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to show that Cordero went to the emergency room on March 30, not March 31.
