$1 and family are implicitly declaredlocalized in the scope in which they reside. In this case, the scope created by while.

'a'=~/(.)/;
print("$1\n");           # a
while ( 'b'=~/(.)/ ) {
   print("$1\n"),        # b
   last;
}
print("$1\n");           # a
[download]

So don't use $1.

my $comment_re = qr{/\*.*?\*/;}s;
my ($comment, $rest);
while (!( ($comment, $rest) = $statement =~ m{^($comment_re)(.*)}s )) 
+{
   defined( my $line = <$file> )
      or die "Premature EOF.\n";
   $statement .= $line;
}
print("Found type 1 comment: $comment\n");
[download]

Also fixed .* ⇒ .*?
Also fixed buggy premature EOF test.