‘He returned from the brink’: The comedy legend was in eight days in a medically induced coma during the pandemic.
Chevy Chase endured a “life-threatening” heart failure that caused him being placed in an induced coma during the pandemic, per details from a new documentary project about the comedy star.
The film, titled I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the legend of films such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who emceed the Oscars on two occasions, remained in care for five weeks in the hospital.
“Something was wrong, and he was unable to describe to me what was wrong. So, we headed to the ER. His heart stopped. During those years he was drinking, he developed cardiomyopathy; which is when the heart muscles get weaker, and they are unable to pump as much blood through the body with each beat.”
Doctors then placed him into a state of unconsciousness for eight days, before advising his daughter, Caley: “We might not get him back. We don’t know how aware 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 returned from the dead.”
The actor personally has stated that he has suffered recall difficulties since his medical ordeal, and in the project he cannot remember some of his past on-set and backstage disputes, including a fistfight with fellow comedian Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live green room.
Chase said he was “upset” by his omission from the 50th anniversary special of SNL recently, at which he was in attendance but not participating.
“Honestly, it was quite upsetting,” he said. “This is probably the first time I’m saying it. But I thought that I should have been on the stage too with all the other actors. When co-stars Garrett and Laraine Newman went on the stage, I was curious as to why I wasn't. There was no invitation. Why was I overlooked?”
The 82-year-old, nearly lost his life in 1980 when he was subjected to an electrical shock on the set of Modern Problems, an incident which led to a period of depression.
