In his memoir, “My Book of Days,” published posthumously Tuesday, Eric Dane described being initially misdiagnosed with a highly treatable disease.
The late “Grey’s Anatomy” actress said she first felt something was wrong when her fingers went numb on her right hand, which she dismissed as “some kind of weird nerve thing.”
“Three weeks later the same thing happens again, even worse. I can’t hold chopsticks at all,” she wrote, later saying she made an appointment with doctors.
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“I first saw a hand specialist, who transferred me to another hand specialist, who sent me to a neurologist,” the actor said, adding that it “minimized the symptoms, although I gradually lost the ability to use my right hand.”
After some time, Dane said doctors gave him a “diagnostic consensus” on multifocal motor neuropathy, defined as “a rare autoimmune disorder that causes extreme muscle weakness.”
Dane wrote that treatment for the disorder is generally “90 percent effective.” But after his treatment failed, he said his doctors were “terrified” so they had to find another diagnosis.
Dane said his doctor eventually told him “we were discussing ALS.”
“I know I face the death penalty,” the actor wrote. “My life turned into a horror movie.”
It ultimately took nine months for the “Euphoria” actor to receive his official ALS diagnosis, which he made public in April 2025. He died in February 2026.
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Dane is survived by his wife, actor Rebecca Gayheart, and their two young daughters, Billie Beatrice and Georgia Geraldine.
Gayheart opened up about her final days with her husband with Maria Shriver for “Today” in a heartbreaking new interview shared Tuesday.
Although she didn’t know it was their last week together, Gayheart said “everything changed” on the third day of Dane’s hospitalization.
“The tone of the doctors when they talked to us and some of the information we were given,” he explained.
“He was fully aware that he was changing and was still in contact with us,” Gayheart said. “Even though he wasn’t very good verbally, I could understand him most of the time. The kids could understand his best friends most of the time.”
“I remember the moment when Eric decided to make some choices, and he did,” he said, adding that “Dane was in control of the way he left.”
“He was becoming mentally more vibrant but was losing all his physical abilities,” Gayheart added. “It was really hard for the girls to watch, too. But overall it was a blur because it was so overwhelming.”