Broadway star Cordero leg amputated after coronavirus infection - Los Angeles Times
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Broadway star Nick Cordero to have leg amputated in COVID-19 complication

Actor Nick Cordero
Actor Nick Cordero performs in “Rock of Ages” in Hollywood on Jan. 11.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Broadway star Nick Cordero, who recently starred in a new production of “Rock of Ages” in Hollywood, is set to have his leg amputated after suffering complications linked to COVID-19.

The Canadian actor, who has a 10-month-old son with former dancer Amanda Kloots, is due to have his right leg amputated Saturday due to blood clotting in the limb following an infection from the novel coronavirus, Kloots shared on Instagram Saturday.

The Laurel Canyon-based couple had moved to L.A. for Cordero’s role in the Broadway production, but instead he was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in March with pneumonia and later diagnosed with COVID-19.

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Cordero, 41, has spent 18 days being sedated in the intensive care unit of the hospital and has received assistance with his breathing through extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, Kloots said.

Kloots, a personal trainer and former Radio City Rockette, has been raising awareness for Cordero’s fight for life via social media using the hashtag #wakeupnick with the help of other high-profile celebrities such as actress Florence Pugh and the cast of the Broadway show he has toured with.

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“We got some difficult news yesterday,” Kloots said via Instagram. “We’ve had issues with his right leg, with clotting and getting blood down to his toes, and it isn’t happening.” Treatment of blood thinners was causing internal bleeding and blood pressure, she wrote. “So the right leg will be amputated today,” Kloots said.

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Cordero, who was nominated for a Tony Award in 2014 for his role as Cheech in “Bullets Over Broadway,” is the latest among many actors, musicians and media figures who’ve contracted the virus and gone public with their diagnosis, including Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, Idris Elba, Pink, Daniel Dae Kim and Andy Cohen.

A number of prominent figures in the entertainment industry have lost their lives to COVID-19, including “E.T. the Extraterrestrial” cinematographer Allen Daviau, songwriter-musician Adam Schlesinger, playwright Terrence McNally, music producer Hal Willner and jazz great Ellis Marsalis Jr. and Lee Konitz.

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