‘He has come back from the dead’: The comedy legend endured eight days in a medically induced coma during the health crisis.

Chevy Chase endured 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 film about the comedy star.

The film, titled I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the legend of movies such as Caddyshack and the National Lampoon series, who emceed the Oscars twice, was hospitalized for five weeks in the hospital.

“There was a problem, and he couldn’t explain to me what was wrong. So, we headed to the ER. His heart gave out. 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.”

Physicians subsequently induced him into a state of unconsciousness for eight days, before cautioning his daughter, his daughter: “We might not get him back. We are unsure how aware he’ll be. Get ready for the worst.”

“After regaining consciousness, all he could do was use his vocal cords,” she stated further. “He has essentially returned from the dead.”

Chase himself has said that he has experienced recall difficulties since his hospitalisation, and in the documentary he does not recollect some of his past on-set and backstage disputes, including a fistfight with fellow comedian Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live dressing room.

Chase said he was “hurt” by his absence from the 50th anniversary special of SNL earlier this year, at which he was in the crowd but not participating.

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

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