‘He was brought back from the edge’: Chevy Chase was in eight days in a medically induced coma during the health crisis.

Chevy Chase suffered a “life-threatening” cardiac event that resulted in him being placed in an induced coma during the pandemic, according to a new documentary project about the American actor and comedian.

As documented in I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the star of films such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who hosted the Oscars twice, was hospitalized for five weeks in the hospital.

“He wasn't right, and he was unable to describe to me what was wrong. So, we go to the ER. His heart stopped. During those years he was drinking, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy; when the heart muscles get weaker, and they are unable to pump as much blood out with each beat.”

Doctors then placed him into a coma for over a week, before advising his child, his daughter: “We might not get him back. We don’t know how aware he’ll be. Get ready for the worst.”

“After regaining consciousness, all he could do was use his vocal cords,” she added. “He has essentially been resurrected.”

The actor personally has stated that he has dealt with memory problems since his hospitalisation, and in the project he fails to recall some of his past professional and personal incidents, including a physical altercation with fellow comedian Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live green room.

He expressed he was “upset” by his exclusion from the milestone special of SNL earlier this year, at which he was in the audience but not participating.

“To be frank, it was disappointing,” he said. “I haven't spoken about this until now. But I assumed that I should have been on the stage too with all the other actors. When co-stars Garrett and Laraine went on the stage, I was curious as to why I was not. There was no invitation. Why was I left aside?”

Now 82, Chase, nearly lost his life in 1980 when he was electrocuted on the set of Modern Problems, an incident which precipitated a period of clinical depression.