A new documentary reveals that Chevy Chase was put into a coma for around eight days after he experienced heart failure during the pandemic. It was reported in 2021 that the now-82-year-old comedian spent five weeks in the hospital due to undisclosed heart issues.
“[He] has basically come back from the dead. He had heart failure,” Chase’s daughter, Caley Chase, said in the documentary, “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not,” premiering Jan. 1 on CNN.
More from Variety
“Something was wrong, and he couldn’t explain to me what was wrong. So, we go to the ER. His heart stops,” Chase’s wife, Jayni Chase, said. “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.”
Cardiomyopathy is a chronic disease that can lead to heart failure and other serious conditions.
“They decided to put him into a coma for maybe eight days,” revealed Chase’s longtime friend, Peter Aaron. “That’s pretty rough on the body.”
“The doctor had warned us: ‘We might not get him back. We don’t know how present he’ll be. Prepare yourselves for the worst.’ He woke up, all he could do was use his voice,” Caley continued, imitating disoriented noises.
She knew her dad was the same old Chevy Chase when a nurse came in to rearrange some medical equipment: “She said, ‘I’m going to have to put this in here.’ And he said, ‘That’s what she said.’”
Aaron said it took a while for Chevy to “reorient himself” after the coma. He had some “cognitive disability” and played cards and chess to get his “head back together.” (“I can only say how happy I am to now be back with my family,” Chase said in a statement to the press in 2021. “I’m feeling good. I was in the hospital five weeks. A heart issue. So, for now, I’m around the house. Not going anywhere.”)
In the documentary, Aaron said, “I feel like his memory gaps come from that incident.”
Chevy concurred, “According to the doctors, my memory would be shot from it. That’s what’s happened here.”
Throughout the doc, when confronted with uncomfortable moments from his past, including on-set disputes from “Saturday Night Live” and “Community,” Chevy said he did not remember many of the incidents.
“Heart failure is what it is. I’m fine now,” he said. “It’s just that it affects your memory, the doctors have told me that. So, I have to be reminded of things.”
Elsewhere in the documentary, the comedian discussed being “hurt” by his exclusion from the “SNL” 50th anniversary special.
“It was kind of upsetting, actually,” he said. “This is probably the first time I’m saying it. But I expected that I would’ve been on the stage too with all the other actors. When Garrett [Morris] and Laraine [Newman] went on the stage there, I was curious as to why I didn’t. No one asked me to. Why was I left aside?”
He added, “I did bring it up once in a text to Lorne [Michaels] and then took it back. I said, ‘Okay, I take it back, silly.’ But it’s not that silly. Somebody’s made a bad mistake there. I don’t know who it was, but somebody made a mistake. They should’ve had me on that stage. It hurt.”
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.