‘He has come back from the dead’: Chevy Chase was in eight days in a coma during the pandemic.

Chevy Chase experienced a “life-threatening” heart failure that caused him being put into an medically induced coma amid the global health crisis, according to a new documentary project about the comedy star.

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, spent a total of five full weeks in the medical facility.

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

Physicians subsequently induced him into a coma for over a week, before cautioning his child, Caley: “His return is uncertain. We are unsure how cognizant he’ll be. You must prepare for the worst.”

“Upon waking, all he was able to do was use his voice,” she added. “He has practically come back from the dead.”

He himself has stated that he has dealt with recall difficulties since his hospitalisation, and in the film he does not recollect some of his past professional and personal controversies, including a fistfight with Bill Murray in a Saturday Night Live green room.

The comedian noted he was “disappointed” by his absence from the 50th anniversary special of SNL earlier this year, at which he was in the audience but not on stage.

“To be frank, it was disappointing,” he said. “I'm only now voicing this. But I expected that I could have been on the stage too with all the other actors. When former castmates Garrett Morris and Laraine took the stage, I was curious as to why I didn’t. No one asked me to. Why was I overlooked?”

Now 82, Chase, 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 depression.