Academy Award-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri hailed friend and fellow actor Nick Cordero on Newsmax TV on Monday, a day after the Broadway star died from complications of COVID-19, urging anyone infected seek treatment immediately or the disease “tears up your organs.”
Palminteri, best known for his work on his semi-autobiographical “A Bronx Tale” and “Bullets Over Broadway,” said Cordero, 41, “lit up the room.”
He told “American Agenda” that Cordero initially sought treatment but was sent home from the hospital. That was something that doctors also told Palminteri’s wife, too, when she became infected with the novel coronavirus and began to show symptoms, but Palminteri said he insisted she be admitted.
By the time Cordero returned to the hospital, Palminteri said, “it was too late.”
“This disease is hideous,” he added. “Once you let it get ahead of you, it absolutely tears up your organs.”
Reports say Cordero entered the emergency room March 30 and had a succession of health setbacks, including mini-strokes, blood clots, sepsis infections, a tracheostomy and a temporary pacemaker implanted. He had been on a ventilator and unconscious and had his right leg amputated. A double lung transplant was being explored, according to The Associated Press.
Palminteri said his wife developed double pneumonia in both lungs and was administered hydroxychloroquine. Within two days, her condition showed improvement.
“If I don’t get her in that hospital, I lose my wife, absolutely,” Palminteri said. “Because once this disease gets ahead of you, it gets too far in the lungs, that’s it. You cannot stop it.
“So, I recommend this to anyone out there, once you start feeling, you cannot breathe, you go to the hospital, and you demand they take care of you.”
Palminteri also pleaded for help for Cordero’s wife, actress Amanda Kloots, and their 1-year-old son, Elvis. He asked for donations to a GoFundMe page to help defray medical costs and for an education fund for the Elivis. As of Monday afternoon, the effort had received more than $855,000.
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