‘He was brought back from the edge’: The comedy legend spent eight days in a medically induced coma during the pandemic.

The famed comedian experienced a “near fatal” heart failure that led to him being put into an induced coma in 2021, according to a new documentary project about the entertainment icon.

Featured in I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the legend of movies such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who hosted the Oscars on two occasions, spent a total of five full weeks in the hospital.

“There was a problem, and he couldn’t explain to me what was wrong. So, we go 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 out with each beat.”

Medical professionals then put him into a coma for eight days, before cautioning his child, his daughter: “His return is uncertain. We don’t know how cognizant he’ll be. Prepare yourselves for the worst.”

“After regaining consciousness, all he was able to do was use his vocal cords,” she continued. “He has basically been resurrected.”

He himself has said that he has suffered memory problems since his hospitalisation, and in the project he does not recollect some of his past professional and personal incidents, including a physical altercation with Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live dressing room.

Chase said he was “disappointed” by his exclusion 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 assumed that I would’ve been on the stage too with all the other actors. When co-stars Garrett and Laraine took the stage, I was curious as to why I didn’t. There was no invitation. Why was I excluded?”

The 82-year-old, nearly lost his life in 1980 when he was shocked by electricity on the set of Modern Problems, an incident which led to a period of severe depression.