‘He was brought back from the edge’: Chevy Chase was in eight days in a medically induced coma during Covid pandemic.
The famed comedian experienced a “near fatal” cardiac event that led to him being placed in an induced coma amid the global health crisis, as revealed in a new documentary project about the entertainment icon.
The film, titled I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the star of movies such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who emceed the Oscars twice, 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 stopped. During those years he was drinking, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy; when the heart muscles get weaker, and they can’t pump as much blood out with each beat.”
Doctors then placed him into a coma for eight days, before warning his child, his daughter: “His return is uncertain. We are unsure how present he’ll be. Prepare yourselves for the worst.”
“After regaining consciousness, all he could do was use his vocal cords,” she added. “He has basically come back from the dead.”
He himself has said that he has experienced cognitive issues since his hospitalisation, and in the film he cannot remember some of his past on-set and backstage disputes, including a fight with fellow comedian Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live green room.
The comedian noted he was “hurt” by his exclusion from the 50th anniversary special of SNL recently, 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 expected that I could have been on the stage too with all the other actors. When former castmates Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman went on the stage, I was curious as to why I wasn't. I wasn't invited. Why was I overlooked?”
Now 82, Chase, came close to death in 1980 when he was shocked by electricity on the set of Modern Problems, an incident which triggered a period of severe depression.
