May 14, 2020
Reports: Broadway Star, COVID-19 Survivor Nick Cordero Awake and Recovering
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 5 MIN.
So much for the idea that only the elderly or chronically ill are at risk of serious complications from COVID-19: 41-year-old Canadian actor Nick Cordero became so desperately ill with the virus that he had to be put on a respirator, lost a leg in a lifesaving emergency amputation, and was in a medically-induced coma for weeks.
Incredibly, Cordero survived.
Now awake and on the road to recovery, Cordero has the support of his wife and young son, as well as a little star power on his side in the form of a get-well message from Sylvester Stallone.
Sky News reports that Cordero – who was starring in "Rock of Ages" in Los Angeles before the show was shuttered due to the pandemic – has been in the hospital for around a month and a half. Cordero's harrowing ordeal has left him with badly damaged lungs and steep medical bills.
Fans and well wishers have risen to the occasion, Sky News reported, with Cordero's GoFundMe page bringing half a million dollars to the actor and his family.
Text posted at the page on April 18 recounts:
Broadway star Nick Cordero recently moved to LA to perform in Rock of Ages. Instead has had an ongoing battle with Covid-19. It seems every time he takes a step forward he takes two steps back. He is hooked up to a ventilator, dialysis machine and ecmo while doctors are having trouble getting blood flow to his leg, and even waking him up. If he does wake up, he may never walk again.
But behind him, resiliently cheering him on from a distance – dancing and rallying the world to send him positive energy and love are his wife Amanda Kloots and son Elvis, who is 10 months.
Sadly, after that post a blood clot made it necessary for Cordero's right leg to be amputated. But wife Amanda Kloots posted an optimistic update on May 7 in which she reported:
I want to THANK everyone on behalf of Nick as well for the incredible donations we have received! I am BLOWN AWAY and in disbelief. Nick won't know what to say when he wakes up! Because of all your help Nick will be able to receive the best rehab and coolest prosthetic for his leg! I cannot believe how many people have donated to us in a time where we are all suffering. Thank you Erin, Jacey and Aimee for setting this up for us. Spearheading this help at a time where I couldn't even think of how to get through the next ten minutes.
Nick is stable and recovering. We are waiting for him to WAKE UP, show signs of tracking and then following commands. I believe in him and I know you do too!! We will get this code rocky!!
Kloots also took to Instagram to share news of her husband's emergence from the coma, reports NPR.
With Cordero now awake and Rocky himself in his corner, it seems that better times are ahead for the actor.
As a delayed, start-and-stop response from the federal government has sputtered along, state governors have stepped up to take charge. Though both Democratic and Republican governors have imposed fairly strict quarantine and social distancing measures, politics has entered into the response, with Democratic governors facing criticisms that their Republican counterparts have largely not been subjected to.
Complicating the picture, some businesses have openly defied closure orders despite the risk to public health of remaining open. Republican lawmakers like Ted Cruz have embraced the moment to make shows of support for such businesses.
In some states, armed protestors carrying assault weapons have taken to the streets to snarl traffic – including creating delays for ambulances trying to reach hospitals – and besieged state houses.
Reports have found that such "reopen" protests are not entirely grassroots in nature, but have been organized and funded by conservative groups.
Meantime, public health experts worry that setting quarantine and social distancing efforts aside too early could lead to a rebound in COVD-19 cases, not unlike the second wave of Spanish Flu that decimated the globe in 1918.
To date, there are nearly one and a half million known cases of COVID-19 in the United States, which some experts fear may be an undercount. Known deaths from the disease in America are approaching 85,000.
