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

The famed comedian experienced a “near fatal” cardiac event that led to him being put into an medically induced coma in 2021, per details from a recent documentary about the entertainment icon.

Featured in I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the star of films such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who emceed the Oscars twice, spent a total of five full weeks in the medical facility.

“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 got cardiomyopathy; when the heart muscles get weaker, and they can’t pump as much blood out with each beat.”

Medical professionals then put him into a state of unconsciousness for eight days, before advising his child, Caley: “He may not recover. We are unsure how present he’ll be. Get ready for the worst.”

“Upon waking, all he was able to do was use his vocal cords,” she added. “He has basically been resurrected.”

Chase himself has revealed that he has suffered recall difficulties since his hospital stay, and in the documentary he cannot remember some of his past professional and personal incidents, including a fistfight with fellow comedian Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live backstage area.

He expressed he was “upset” by his omission from the 50th anniversary special of SNL recently, at which he was in the crowd but not on stage.

“Well, it was kind of upsetting actually,” he said. “I haven't spoken about this until now. But I thought that I should have been on the stage too with all the other actors. When co-stars Garrett Morris and Laraine took the stage, I was curious as to why I was not. I wasn't invited. Why was I overlooked?”

Now 82, Chase, almost died in 1980 when he was shocked by electricity on the set of Modern Problems, an accident which precipitated a period of severe depression.