Nick Cordero’s Wife Says the ‘Ultimate Goal’ Is a Double-Lung Transplant

Nick, 41, was admitted to the hospital in late March with COVID-19 and has suffered many setbacks, including a medically induced coma, amputated leg, and lung infections.

Kloots has opened up to Gayle King on “CBS This Morning,” saying, "In a perfect world — because we are hoping for a perfect world — our ultimate, ultimate goal would be to get him to be a candidate for a double-lung transplant. We think that that is most likely the possibility, 99% chance that he would be needing that in order to live the kind of life that I know my husband would want to live. That is a long road away."

She also gave an update on his health, saying, "He is doing okay. He's stable. Nick's body is extremely weak, muscles have atrophied so he can't move his body yet. He can still open his eyes. And when he is alert and awake, he'll answer commands by looking up or down, yes-or-no questions. When I'm asking him, he will even try to smile or move. The nurses have said that he answers my questions the best."

As far as what he understands, she said, “That is really hard to try to gauge, unfortunately. We have told him a blanket statement of kind of what has happened just because we don't know what he understands just yet.” She has told him that his leg was amputated, adding, “I told him there are amazing prosthetics and I told him I have been talking to other amputees and to try to give him encouragement.”

Kloots says she has been told more than once he wouldn't survive, but the Broadway star continues to fight.

She told King, "They told me four times he won't survive, saying he won't survive through the night. But he has. He has. I believe, Gayle, that God is the only person that's going to decide when and if my husband goes. So I will never try to play that role. He's fighting. I see it every day, Nick's doctor sees it, and as long as he's in there and fighting, I'll continue to fight with him."

For now, her family is helping her through the tough times. "I came home the other day really feeling, you know, just kind of exhausted and sad,” she said. “And I let it out. I screamed and I cried in front of my parents. You have to have those days. You have to break down. That's only natural," she explained. "I am a strong person, but even strong people break, and that's okay. You have to break down so that you can build yourself up again."