For Nick Cordero and his wife Amanda Kloots, it's been one health battle after another.
The Tony-nominated performer has been in the hospital since the start of April battling coronavirus, a diagnosis he didn't get until after he went to the emergency room and doctors wanted to put him on a ventilator. Up until that point, the star had been diagnosed with solely pneumonia at an urgent care, but his condition continued to worsen at home.
As Kloots recalled their medical rollercoaster ride in an interview on CBS This Morning, she initially thought she would see her husband of nearly three years shortly after he went into the hospital.
"This is one of the saddest parts—we thought I would see him in two hours. I said you know, 'Call me when you want me to come pick you up,'" she recalled. "I didn't even give him a kiss or a hug because we were also kind of self-isolating from him because we have this 10-month-old baby." About an hour later, Nick called to tell her he had been admitted, that he was in a bed with oxygen and that she should go home and he would call later.
A month-long fight with a virus crippling the world has since unfolded for the couple. A life-changing situation arose when, after seeming to turn a corner, Cordero got an infection and needed resuscitation.
Then, according to Kloots, while he was on an ECMO machine, a tube was restricting blood flow to his right leg, which resulted in Nick's body both trying to save the leg, but fighting itself at the same time. With her husband facing major damage to his body, the decision was essentially to save his leg or save his life.
"He's a dancer, he's an actor, he's a performer—it was not an easy decision to make," she told King. His leg was ultimately amputated.
Cordero has since suffered a fever, lung infection and some septic shock and was being treated with antibiotics and blood pressure medication to bring his pressure up. According to Kloots, a plan to put a feeding tube in was halted after his blood count was low, which could indicate internal bleeding, so they are waiting on blood test results.
In the meantime, Cordero has the support of his wife and fans around the country, who play his song "Live Your Life" daily as part of an encouraging social media effort.
"Nick would love this," she told King. "When he hears that everyone is playing his song every day and praying for him and now it's on the radio…he won't believe it."
Meanwhile, Kloots, who stands outside the hospital every day to play his song and cheer him on, has not lost hope.
"I feel like there is an army of people behind him, behind us," she said. "I just believe—I get chills saying it—I just believe that he will wake up."