‘He returned from the brink’: The comedy legend spent eight days in a medically induced coma during the health crisis.

The famed comedian endured a “near fatal” cardiac event that resulted in him being placed in an induced coma during the pandemic, per details from a new film about the American actor and comedian.

Featured in I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the legend of movies such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who emceed the Oscars on two occasions, remained in care for five weeks in the hospital.

“He wasn't right, and he couldn’t explain to me what was wrong. So, we went 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 are unable to pump as much blood out with each beat.”

Medical professionals then put him into a coma for more than a week, before cautioning his daughter, his daughter: “We might not get him back. We are unsure how cognizant he’ll be. You must prepare for the worst.”

“When he woke up, all he was able to do was use his vocal cords,” she added. “He has practically come back from the dead.”

Chase himself has stated that he has experienced memory problems since his hospitalisation, and in the documentary he fails to recall some of his past on-set and backstage incidents, including a fistfight with Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live green room.

Chase said he was “hurt” by his omission from the milestone special of SNL recently, at which he was in attendance but not on stage.

“To be frank, it was disappointing,” he said. “I haven't spoken about this until now. But I assumed that I would’ve been on the stage too with all the other actors. When former castmates Garrett and Laraine Newman were called up, I was curious as to why I didn’t. There was no invitation. Why was I excluded?”

Now 82, Chase, almost died in 1980 when he was electrocuted on the set of Modern Problems, an incident which precipitated a period of clinical depression.