Canadian actor and musician Nick Cordero is going to lose a leg as a complication of COVID-19, his wife said Saturday.
“The right leg will be amputated today,” Amanda Kloots said, in an Instagram Story.
The sad news comes a week after the 41-year-old Hamilton, Ont. native underwent emergency surgery to restore blood flow to his right leg – and almost three weeks after he was admitted to a Los Angeles area hospital with suspected COVID-19 symptoms. He tested positive.
“They had him on blood thinners for the clotting and unfortunately the blood thinners were causing some other issues — blood pressure and some internal bleeding in his intestines,” Kloots explained. “We took him off blood thinners but that again was going to cause some clotting in the right leg.”
Last Saturday, Kloots said Cordero had developed an infection in a lung that caused his fever to spike and his blood pressure to drop. She said doctors had to resuscitate him. Cordero was put on on an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine to support his heart and lungs and dialysis for his kidneys.
“He is alive,” said Kloots at the time. “He is still in very critical condition. He is struggling … every minute counts right now.” She said her husband is “fighting for his life right now.”
Cordero dropped out of Toronto's Ryerson University to join rock-soul band LoveMethod. He starred in Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding in Toronto and worked in shows onboard cruise ships before finding work on the stages of New York City. Cordero starred in Rock of Ages on Broadway as well as Waitress and A Bronx Tale. He earned a Tony Award nomination in 2014 for playing Cheech in Bullets Over Broadway.
Cordero and Kloots have a young son.
“I wish I could see him,” she shared in an Instagram Story. “Hold his hand. Touch his face. I do believe this would help him wake up.”