Zach Braff is taking care of his best friend's family.
The Scrubs actor, 45, opened up about how he was doing after his best friend, Broadway star Nick Cordero, contracted the coronavirus and underwent a leg amputation due to complications from the disease.
"Well, I am OK, but I'm very close to this because one of my best friends in the world, Nick Cordero, and his wife [Amanda Kloots] and baby have been living in my guest house for seven months as they were house-shopping in L.A. to make the move out here," Braff told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Thursday.
Braff said Cordero has coronavirus "worse than anyone I've heard of who hasn't passed away."
Throughout his battle, Kloots has kept her Instagram followers updated on Cordero's condition.
"He's 41 and he's unconscious at Cedars — he's on a ventilator," Braff said. "He's lost his leg due to complications and every day we don't know what will happen. So, his wife and baby are living in my guest house, and thank God they've been joined by her amazing brother and sister who are taking care of her and helping her with the baby."
Braff, who shares his home with girlfriend Florence Pugh, says they have also been there to "help them in any way we can, too."
"We obviously stay social distanced from them, but we bring them food and wine and flowers," the actor said. "And then there's this amazing community around them: you can look online and see the hashtag, #WakeUpNick, and there's a GoFundMe [for Cordero’s medical expenses]. My point is that most people are lucky enough to not have this land in their backyard and also I think a lot of people are still under the impression that this is only really dire for seniors, but I'm here to tell you that a very, very healthy 41-year-old friend of mine is fighting for his life."
Braff also gave an update on Kloots, with whom Cordero shares a 10-month-old son, Elvis Eduardo.
"She's amazing," the actor said. "She's a motivation trainer, so she's gone into full-on bad-ass crisis dealing mode. If you look at her Instagram, she tells stories about him and she motivates other people — she's literally trying to motivate other people."
Kloots has taken to singing Cordero's song "Live Your Life" on social media, which has been emulated by Cordero's Broadway family including the company of Waitress and Rock of Ages.
Last week, Kloots updated fans on her husband saying the coronavirus was “out of his system” after his results came back negative on two COVID-19 tests.
On Thursday, Kloots gave her first in-depth interview about her husband to Gayle King on CBS This Morning in which she shared that she had not been expecting Cordero to be admitted into the hospital.
“We drove to the emergency room and we dropped him off, and this is one of the saddest parts, we thought I would see him in two hours,” Kloots said.
The fitness instructor recalled telling her husband, 41, that she was going to take their son, Elvis Eduardo, for a walk and instructed Cordero to give her a call when he was ready to be picked up.
"We just weren’t thinking," she continued. "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 and I couldn’t get sick, I’m still breastfeeding."
Kloots said that after an hour of waiting, Cordero called her and said, "'Amanda, they have admitted me, I'm now in a bed with oxygen."
Cordero — who starred in Rock of Ages and Waitress and was nominated for a Tony for his role in Bullets Over Broadway — has been in the intensive care unit since late March.
He was first admitted to the hospital when he was “having a hard time breathing” after being diagnosed with pneumonia. At the time, Cordero had tested negative for COVID-19 twice before a third test came back positive.
Shortly after, Cordero became unconscious and was placed in a medically induced coma. He was then hooked up to a ventilator and an ECMO machine to “support his heart and his lungs,” according to Kloots.
Still sedated, Cordero was also put on dialysis to assist his kidneys, but doctors found an infection in his lung and he underwent emergency surgery.
While recovering, Cordero began having issues with blood clots in his right leg, which was preventing blood from circulating to his toes. After the blood thinners he was on to help with the clots started causing other problems, doctors made the difficult decision to amputate Cordero’s leg.
In support of her husband, Kloots has been asking fans and loved ones to sing and dance on social media using the hashtag #WakeUpNick. A GoFundMe page was also recently created by their friends to raise funds for Cordero's medical bills as he continues to undergo treatment.
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