‘He has come back from the dead’: Chevy Chase was in eight days in a medically induced coma during the pandemic.

Chevy Chase suffered a “near fatal” cardiac event that led to him being put into an medically induced coma during the pandemic, per details from a new film about the comedy star.

As documented in I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the star of films such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who emceed 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 headed to the ER. His heart stops. During those years he was drinking, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy; which is when the heart muscles get weaker, and they can’t pump as much blood out with each beat.”

Medical professionals then put him into a coma for more than a week, before advising his child, his daughter: “His return is uncertain. We are unsure how cognizant he’ll be. Prepare yourselves for the worst.”

“When he woke up, all he could do was use his vocal cords,” she continued. “He has basically returned from the dead.”

The actor personally has said that he has suffered recall difficulties since his hospitalisation, and in the documentary he does not recollect some of his past professional and personal disputes, including a fight with Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live green room.

The comedian noted he was “disappointed” by his absence from the 50th-anniversary show of SNL this year, at which he was in the audience but not participating.

“Honestly, it was quite upsetting,” he said. “This is probably the first time I’m saying it. But I assumed that I should have been on the stage too with all the other actors. When co-stars Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman were called up, I was curious as to why I didn’t. No one asked me to. Why was I overlooked?”

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