Instagram Amanda Kloots and husband Nick Cordero with their son, Elvis.
It’s been over a month since Nick Cordero, 41, miraculously woke up after being in a medically induced coma for six weeks due to complications from coronavirus, and the Broadway star’s journey back to health continues to be an uphill battle. While there have been numerous tiny victories, on June 25 his wife, celebrity fitness trainer Amanda Kloots, had less-than-exciting news to share.
Thursday marked Cordero’s 85th day in the intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, and while Kloots is thrilled to finally be able finally to visit Cordero in person, “Nick is profoundly weak,” she wrote on Instagram. “Imagine how you feel getting the flu and how it can take your body a full week to recover. Now imagine how Nick’s body feels, all that he has gone through, and how long it will take him to recover. This will take time, a long time.”
However, Kloots, who recently celebrated their son Elvis’ first birthday, was happy to announce that Cordero’s range of motion in his face is improving.
“He interacts with his eyes, answering questions by looking up for yes and down for no,” Kloots continued. “When he is alert he can also move his jaw. 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 added. “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.”
Cordero Isn’t Strong Enough to Cough
During an Instagram live video on June 24, Kloots went into more detail on how weak her husband’s body has become after spending so much time in the ICU.
“Nick isn’t strong enough to cough,” Kloots said, explaining how doctors routinely go in to clean out Cordero’s lungs to prevent him from developing another lung infection. “Because Nick can’t cough because he isn’t strong enough … he can’t get all that stuff in the bottom of his lungs out. And when [the doctors] go down there to clean his lungs out, they can’t get down there enough either.”
On a positive note, however, Kloots said that Cordero has started to move his jaw and the former Radio City Rockette has not lost hope he will fully recover.
She wrote on Thursday, “Is this defeating? Sometimes it is, I won’t lie. I wish I would walk into his room and he was able to give me a big smile and hold my hand. But instead of feeling defeated, I turn to feeling determined! I give him any and all energy I can. I tell him goals that the doctors would like to see. I insist that he CAN do this!”
Kloots Said Cordero Has Lost 65 Pounds Since He’s Been in the ICU
During a Q & A session on Instagram Live on June 24, Kloots answered numerous questions about Cordero’s health and what lies ahead. She said, “What’s so heartbreaking is that he’s so weak. He’s so weak that he still can’t move and his muscles are definitely atrophying.
“This is really hard because what Nick has lost is muscle,” Kloots continued. “His muscles are just atrophied.” When a fan asked if it was a “priority” for doctors to help Cordero regain the 65 pounds he’d lost while being in the ICU, “You can’t really gain your muscle back until you can move, so they have him on some high protein and high-calorie food, but he’s gotta move,” Kloots answered.
“The next goal is to get Nick’s blood pressure under control,” Kloots said. “That might mean he has an infection, so they’re trying to find this infection. After that, if we can get that blood pressure back, it would be to go on intermittent dialysis. The white blood count is actually in a good range, but the blood pressure is still an issue. He’s getting a transfusion right now. Fingers crossed.”
“When he gets out of the hospital … because he is getting out of this hospital,” Kloots noted, “he would go to a rehab center and probably be at a rehab center for a year before even coming home. They say for every week in the ICU is a month in rehab,” she said. Therefore, even in the best-case scenario, Cordero won’t be discharged from the hospital until months from now.
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