Chevy Chase Spent 8 Days in a Coma, Daughter Reveals Shocking Details

A new documentary has revealed that Chevy Chase was put into a coma for about eight days after suffering heart failure during the pandemic. The comedian, now 82, was hospitalized for five weeks in 2021 due to heart issues, though the full details were not previously shared.

“[He] has basically come back from the dead. He had heart failure,” Chase’s daughter, Caley Chase, said in the CNN documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, which premiered on January 1.

Chase’s wife, Jayni, explained the severity of the situation: “Something was wrong, and he couldn’t explain to me what was wrong. So, we go to the ER. His heart stops. 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 serious condition that can lead to heart failure.

Chase’s longtime friend, Peter Aaron, added, “They decided to put him into a coma for maybe eight days. That’s pretty rough on the body.”

Caley shared how scary the situation was for the family. “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,” she said, mimicking her father’s disoriented sounds.

Despite the coma, Caley knew her father was back to his usual self when a nurse came in to adjust some medical equipment. “She said, ‘I’m going to have to put this in here.’ And he said, ‘That’s what she said,’” she recalled.

Aaron said it took time for Chase to fully reorient himself. He experienced some cognitive challenges and worked on his recovery by playing cards and chess. Chase himself explained, “According to the doctors, my memory would be shot from it. That’s what’s happened here.”

In the documentary, Chase admitted he struggles to remember some past events, including disputes on the sets of Saturday Night Live and Community. “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.”

Chase also spoke about being left out of 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.”

The documentary paints a detailed picture of Chase’s health struggles, his recovery, and the challenges of coping with memory loss after such a serious medical event.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!