‘He returned from the brink’: The comedy legend endured eight days in a medically induced coma during the pandemic.
The famed comedian suffered a “potentially fatal” cardiac event that resulted in him being put into an medically induced coma during the pandemic, as revealed in a new documentary project about the American actor and comedian.
The film, titled I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the star of movies such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who hosted the Oscars on two occasions, remained in care for five full weeks in the medical facility.
“There was a problem, and he was unable to describe to me what was wrong. So, we went to the ER. His heart stopped. During those years he was drinking, he developed cardiomyopathy; when the heart muscles get weaker, and they are unable to pump as much blood out with each beat.”
Medical professionals then put him into a state of unconsciousness for eight days, before cautioning his daughter, Caley: “He may not recover. 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 practically been resurrected.”
The actor personally has said that he has suffered recall difficulties since his hospital stay, and in the documentary he does not recollect some of his past on-set and backstage controversies, including a physical altercation with fellow comedian Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live dressing room.
The comedian noted he was “hurt” by his absence from the milestone special of SNL this year, at which he was in attendance but not on stage.
“Honestly, it was quite upsetting,” 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 former castmates Garrett Morris and Laraine were called up, I was puzzled as to why I was not. No one asked me to. 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 accident which triggered a period of severe depression.
