Chevy Chase‘s family has opened up about what it was like when he experienced a near-fatal health scare five years ago.
The comedian, now 82, was put in a coma for eight days in 2021 after experiencing heart failure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His daughter Caley remarked in a new documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, “[He] has basically come back from the dead. He had heart failure,” Variety.
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Chase’s wife Jayni added in the documentary: ”Something was wrong, and he couldn’t explain to me what was wrong.
“So, we got 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.”
Caley added that, “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.”
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But there was a single moment when she knew her dad would make a recovery.
As a nurse came into his hospital room to switch around some medical equipment, “She said, ‘I’m going to have to put this in here,'” Caley explained, “And he said, ‘That’s what she said.'”
After his five-week hospitalisation, during which he did not disclose the nature of his illness, the former SNL star released a statement at the time.
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“These are my first few days home,” Chase told Page Six, “I can only say how happy I am to now be back with my family. 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.”
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