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Eric Dane received misdiagnosis months before ALS ‘death sentence’
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Eric Dane revealed that he was misdiagnosed with a treatable illness before finding out it was ALS, in his posthumous memoir.
The former Grey's Anatomy star sadly passed away on February 19, with a heartbreaking statement revealing that it was as a result of respiratory failure related to ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
Dane's final on-screen appearance was as Cal Jacobs in the third season of Euphoria, which aired posthumously in April.
He was suffering from ALS symptoms while filming, as fans praised the way writers masked his condition in the show.
Dane's posthumous memoir, My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments, was released today (November 3), after some excerpts were previously made public.
The actor opened up on his health battle in the memoir, revealing all the ins and outs of his ALS condition.
Eric Dane's misdiagnosis
The actor explained that he looked for answers as he was 'gradually losing any use of [his] right hand'.
He wrote: “First, I saw a hand specialist, who passed me off to another hand specialist, who sent me to a neurologist.”
The medical specialist suggested that Dane 'had contracted some form of neuropathy' before admitting his condition was 'above his pay grade' and sending The Last Ship star to another doctor.
“I shuttled from doctor to doctor and underwent a battery of tests, including one called an EMG, an electromyography test,” Dane recalled.
He said that he was eventually given a 'diagnostic consensus' of multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN).
In his own words, the condition was a 'rare autoimmune disorder causing extreme muscle weakness' that had a '90 percent effective' treatment.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, MMN is a rare, slow-progressing autoimmune condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks the motor nerves that control your muscles.
Dane said that he did not respond to treatment, which left his medical team 'scared', before being handed the bad news.
The actor's primary care doctor gave him 'grim news', telling him: “We’ve been discussing ALS. But we have to wait and see.”
He admitted that he was 'frustrated and fed up' with the process, and proceeded to undergo a lumbar puncture, spinal fluid extraction, and brain scans.
Nine months later, in 2024, Dane was told he had ALS, which the actor described as a 'death sentence' with the makings of a 'horror movie'.
In April 2025, Dane went public with his ALS diagnosis.
Eric Dane explained the first time he noticed ALS symptoms
The actor wrote in his memoir, as per People: “I’m eating sushi with my kids and suddenly I can’t work the chopsticks with my right hand. My hand tingles, and then my fingers feel numb,” he said of an incident on January 7, 2024.
Dane, who announced his diagnosis a year later, admitted that he thought it was 'some kind of weird nerve thing' that may have been caused by 'probably texting too much', so he tried to 'shake it off'.
But things did not improve, as the actor added: “Three weeks later, it happens again, only worse. I can’t grip the chopsticks at all.”
This second occurrence led to nine months of the actor seeing medical professionals as he looked 'for answers' before being diagnosed with ALS.
He wrote in 2025: “I have been diagnosed with ALS. I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter. … I kindly ask that you give my family and I privacy during this time.”