Zach Braff on Nick Cordero's 'tragic' death, praises Amanda Kloots as 'the ultimate wife'

Zach Braff is opening up about the death of his friend Nick Cordero, the 41-year-old Broadway star who died on July 5 after being hospitalized with coronavirus complications.

During the latest episode the "Fake Doctors, Real Friends" podcast, Braff spoke to co-host Donald Faison about Cordero's passing.

"For clarity’s sake, he didn’t have COVID-19 anymore. But what COVID did to Nick is what it does to a lot of people, it comes in and wreaks havoc on your body," Braff said. "Then it leaves and you don’t have it anymore, but you’re left with what the doctors called ‘lungs that look like Swiss cheese.' They said it looked like he'd been a heavy smoker his entire life."

He continued, "And he was on every machine they could put him on. And towards the end, they were all on full. He'd have days where he was doing OK and everyone would get excited because something would happen that was somewhat good and then it would all kind of go back to zero... the machines were really, truly keeping him alive."

Cordero was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in late March for what was initially thought to be pneumonia. A first coronavirus test came up negative, though a subsequent test was positive for COVID-19.

Over the course of 13 weeks, Cordero faced a multitude of serious complications, including a leg amputation, infections in his lungs and the insertion of a temporary pacemaker.

Braff called Cordero's wife Amanda Kloots, who had been sharing Cordero's health journey to her more thank 500,000 Instagram followers, "the ultimate wife."

"I can't imagine a spouse who could've championed her husband more," he said, before explaining the extra challenges the virus presented. "Can you imagine how tragic this is? Your partner’s in the hospital, you can’t even be there? You can’t be by their side, you can’t hug them, you can’t kiss them, you can’t cheer them on. You have to do it over FaceTime that a generous nurse has arranged."

Braff added that "one of the hardest things" is seeing young people's attitude towards the virus, including those who brush it off as being "like the flu."

"For some, that's true and for some, there's what happened to Nick, where it just destroys your body," Braff said, before listing out some of Cordero's complications.

Contributing: Brian Truitt

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nick Cordero death: Zach Braff calls Amanda Kloots ultimate wife