‘He returned from the brink’: Chevy Chase spent eight days in a medically induced coma during the pandemic.

Chevy Chase endured a “life-threatening” heart failure that resulted in him being placed in an induced coma in 2021, according to a new film about the comedy star.

As documented in I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the star of movies such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who emceed the Oscars on two occasions, remained in care for five full weeks in the medical facility.

“There was a problem, and he couldn’t explain 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 through the body with each beat.”

Doctors then placed him into a state of unconsciousness for more than a week, before cautioning his child, his daughter: “His return is uncertain. We don’t know how cognizant he’ll be. Prepare yourselves for the worst.”

“Upon waking, all he could do was use his vocal cords,” she stated further. “He has practically come back from the dead.”

He himself has said that he has dealt with recall difficulties since his hospital stay, and in the project he cannot remember some of his past on-set and backstage disputes, including a fight with Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live backstage area.

The comedian noted he was “disappointed” by his omission from the 50th anniversary special of SNL earlier this year, at which he was in the audience but not on stage.

“To be frank, it was disappointing,” he said. “This is probably the first time I’m saying it. But I thought that I could have been on the stage too with all the other actors. When co-stars Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman took the stage, I was puzzled as to why I wasn't. I wasn't invited. Why was I left aside?”

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