Broadway star and Tony-nominated actor, Nick Cordero, died on Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a months-long battle with Coronavirus. He was 41.
What We Know:
- Cordero spent over 90 days in the hospital fighting the Coronavirus before he died on Sunday. He is survived by his wife Amanda Kloots and their 1-year-old son Elvis Eduardo.
- His death was announced on Instagram by Kloots. “My darling husband passed away this morning,” she wrote. “He was surrounded in love by his family, singing and praying as he gently left this earth.” She did not cite a cause, but he had been hospitalized for over 90 days after contracting the Coronavirus.
- Kloots chronicled Cordero’s battle against the virus on Instagram. Throughout his three months stay at the hospital, Cordero experienced weeks in a medically induced coma and the amputation of his right leg.
- Cordero’s big break came in 2014 when he played Cheech, a gangster with a fondness for theater and a talent for tap who was the highlight of a musical adaptation of Bullets Over Broadway. The role won him a Tony nomination. He also starred in Waitress, A Bronx Tale, and Rock of Ages.
- Cordero first became ill on March 20, Kloots said in a series of Instagram posts. He was initially diagnosed with pneumonia, but Kloots shared that despite “two negative COVID tests, doctors [were] convinced though that it is COVID, so they did a third test.” His third test came back positive for Coronavirus.
- In late March, Cordero told Kloots he would be moved to the ICU, and one day later, he called to say doctors had decided to put him on a ventilator. “He said, ‘I love you, they have decided to put me on a ventilator with a breathing tube, and I’m gonna go unconscious, and I don’t know when I’ll wake up, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to talk to you again,’” Kloots told BuzzFeed News.
- By the middle of April, Kloots shared the Cordero was fighting for his life, saying that he had an infection in his lung, which caused his fever to spike way above normal. This caused his blood pressure to drop and his heart to go into [an] irregular pattern where he lost consciousness, he lost his pulse and they had to resuscitate him. “It was very scary. They had a very hard time getting him back,” Kloots shared.
- For weeks, he was kept alive with extensive treatment, including the use of a ventilator, dialysis, and a specialized heart-lung bypass machine; he endured brief heart stoppage, minor heart attacks, and sepsis, Kloots said, as well as the leg amputation and a tracheotomy.
- By the end of April, Cordero had tested negative for Coronavirus. Still, he continued to battle the lung infection, and by May 20, Kloots told her followers that “unfortunately things are going a little downhill at the moment” and asked for prayers.
- After 79 days of not being able to visit Cordero in the hospital due to coronavirus safety guidelines and visitor restrictions, Kloots was finally able to visit her husband at the L.A. hospital in June and shared that he was unable to move or talk, but he was awake. Additionally, Cordero’s muscles had begun to atrophy due to his lack of movement, resulting in a significant 65 lbs. weight loss.
- Cordero was in the ICU for a total of 95 days battling Coronavirus. “He had no pre-existing health conditions. We do not know how he got COVID-19, but he did,” Kloots wrote in an Instagram post on May 8. “This disease does not only affect old people. This is real. A perfectly healthy 41-year-old man!”
- Kloots faced criticism from followers who expressed “negativity” that she has continued to focus on her business amid Cordero’s hospitalization. Kloots addressed the comments over the weekend, saying, “My husband has been in the ICU for 91 days. We don’t know if he’ll make it. But, if he does make it, I don’t know when he’ll be able to work again.” Kloots added, “I have a family. I have bills. I have no idea what Nick’s hospital bills are going to be. I haven’t even tried to wrap my head around that yet. I have a mortgage. I have a car payment. I have a son that is one-year-old that I want to send to college one day, or at least give him whatever I can.”
Our thoughts go out to the loved ones of Nick Cordero. In support of Cordero’s family, a GoFundMe page was created to raise funds for his medical bills.
