Months before Eric Dane was given what he called an ALS “death sentence,” doctors had diagnosed him with a different, treatable condition.
Dane died at 53 earlier this year. Now, a memoir he wrote while confronting his illness has been published, offering an intimate account of his addiction struggles, his relationship with Rebecca Gayheart and the first warning signs of his declining health.
My Book Of Days: A Memoir of Moments was released Tuesday. In the book, Dane recounts the long and uncertain path that eventually led to his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
The rare, incurable disease progressively damages the nervous system, gradually weakening the muscles and often leading to paralysis.
Dane said he first sought medical help after “gradually losing any use of [his] right hand.”
“First, I saw a hand specialist, who passed me off to another hand specialist, who sent me to a neurologist,” he wrote.
Eric Dane, pictured in Los Angeles in June 2025, was misdiagnosed with a treatable condition months before he received what he called his ALS “death sentence”
Dane’s memoir, My Book Of Days: A Memoir of Moments, was released Tuesday and details the events leading to his ALS diagnosis
The neurologist suspected the actor had “some form of neuropathy” but considered the matter beyond his expertise and referred him to another physician.
“I shuttled from doctor to doctor and underwent a battery of tests, including one called an EMG, an electromyography test,” Dane recalled.
After several consultations, doctors reached what he described as “a diagnostic consensus”: multifocal motor neuropathy.
According to Cleveland Clinic, multifocal motor neuropathy, or MMN, is a rare autoimmune disorder that attacks the body’s motor nerves. The condition can be treated, although it cannot be cured.
“Finally, thankfully, an answer. And, even better, a treatment—a transfusion that is 90 percent effective,” Dane wrote.
“A glum doctor injected immunoglobulin or gamma globulin or some kind of globulin into my body. Lit me up.
“Except—it didn’t work. I didn’t respond to the treatment. I still couldn’t move my right hand.”
When Dane failed to improve, his doctors became alarmed—and their concern quickly heightened his own fears.
Doctors initially agreed Dane had multifocal motor neuropathy, but the treatment—described as 90 percent effective—failed to restore movement in his hand; pictured in New York in May 2024
Dane rose to fame as Dr. Mark Sloan, known as “McSteamy,” on Grey’s Anatomy
He returned to his primary-care doctor in Los Angeles, who told him in what Dane described as a “grim monotone”: “I’m going to level with you. We’ve been discussing ALS. But we have to wait and see.”
The months that followed brought more tests, a lumbar puncture, spinal-fluid analysis and brain scans—yet no definitive diagnosis.
Frustrated, Dane drew on his connections to reach Dr. Terrelonge, head of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, and agreed to repeat the examinations.
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Dane said the doctor approached him hesitantly but spoke with certainty when he delivered the diagnosis the actor had been “scared to death” to hear: ALS.
“The letters seem to float out of his mouth and hover ominously above me. I know what the letters mean. I’ve prepared myself for at least that much,” Dane wrote.
“I know those letters mean I have a progressive, degenerative disease that will gradually destroy the nerve cells and connections I need to walk, use my hands, speak and breathe. I know I’m facing a death sentence. My life has become a horror movie.”
Even after receiving the devastating news, Dane said he found himself comforting his brother Sean and his cousin Mark, who had accompanied him to the Bay Area.
Dane and actress Rebecca Gayheart shared two daughters, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14.
The actor, who became a household name playing womanizing surgeon Dr. Mark Sloan—“McSteamy”—on Grey’s Anatomy, died of ALS on February 19 at age 53, roughly a year after publicly announcing his diagnosis.
Dane was married to Rebecca Gayheart, pictured in Los Angeles in June 2017; although they separated that year, they remained close co-parents and never formally finalized their divorce
The former couple shared daughters Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14; pictured with Dane in Hollywood in May 2024
Although Dane and Gayheart separated in 2017, they continued to co-parent amicably and never completed their divorce. They withdrew the case shortly before Dane revealed that he had ALS, commonly known in the United States as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Gayheart, 55, remained a steadfast presence during Dane’s final decline, even though both continued dating other people.
The couple married in 2004, two years before Dane landed his breakout role as “McSteamy” on Grey’s Anatomy.
They remained together through a scandal five years into their marriage, when a private video showing them naked with a former beauty queen was leaked.
Gayheart also supported Dane through a series of personal challenges, including his 2011 rehabilitation stay to stop using pain medication he had begun taking after an injury.
In 2017, Dane entered treatment for depression, prompting a temporary halt in production of his action series The Last Ship.
The following year, Gayheart filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The pair agreed to share custody of their daughters, with Dane ordered to pay alimony.
Dane and Gayheart are pictured with their two children in Los Angeles in June 2017
Gayheart, who had worked only occasionally after becoming a mother, said several months after filing for divorce that she hoped to return to acting.
“I think that as a female you need to be able to always take care of yourself and never depend on a man,” she told Us Weekly. “I’m going back to work and I think it’s partly because I want my daughters to see me work.”
She said she and Dane were “doing our best” to raise their children together, adding: “It isn’t easy. But we are trying and we are committed.”
The couple ultimately abandoned the divorce proceedings in the weeks before Dane announced his ALS diagnosis.
Dane’s memoir, My Book Of Days: A Memoir of Moments, is available now.
