Eric Dane “I Don’t Feel Like This Is The End Of Me’
UPDATE, Tuesday: In the second part of a two-part GMA interview, Euphoria actor Eric Dane revealed that he is in a research study for his ALS and is taking medication to slow the effects of the disorder.
“I’m fighting as much as I can,” Dane said. “There’s so much about it that’s out of my control.” At another point, Dane said, “In my heart I just don’t feel like this is the end of me.”
Watch the second part of the GMA interview above.
In yesterday’s segment of the interview, Dane spoke of losing the use of his right arm due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. The degenerative neurological disorder that eventually leads to paralysis, taking away a person’s ability to move, speak, swallow or even breathe, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Today Dane was joined by Dr. Merit Cudkowicz, a neurologist and leading ALS researcher. The actor said the doctor has given him a sense of hope.
Dane said that “there was a sense of hope I didn’t get from other doctors that I met with.”
“I will fly to Germany and eat the head off a rattlesnake if she told me that that would help,” Dane joked.
Cudkowicz, chief of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, said she found hope from recent medical discoveries of treatments that can slow the progression of the disease in some patients.
“There’s people all over the world working on this,” Cudkowicz said. “Between artificial intelligence and other imaging technology, that’s what gets me excited, and that’s all coming in the next, I think one to two years, if not faster.”
PREVIOUS, Monday: Eric Dane, appearing on today’s Good Morning America, said in a taped interview with Diane Sawyer that due to ALS he no longer has use of his right arm and that he expects to lose use of his left hand.
“It’s sobering,” the 52-year-old former Grey’s Anatomy star said in a voice that occasionally sounded whispery and strained.
Watch the first half of the interview above.
The segment, which ABC previewed last week, is Dane’s first major interview about his illness since the Euphoria actor revealed his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis to People magazine in April.
During the GMA interview, Dane emotionally related an incident when he went swimming and suddenly realized he didn’t have the strength to continue. A former competitive swimmer, Dane was rescued by his 13-year-old daughter.
Said Dane, “She dragged me back to the boat. I was just, I was like, heartbroken.”
The actor said, “I’m angry because my father was taken from me when I was young. And now, you know, there’s a very good chance I’m going to be taken from my girls while they’re very young.”
Dane has two daughters, ages 13 and 15, with wife and actor Rebecca Gayheart.
Dane also spoke about his friendship with Gayheart (the two are separated) which he says has gotten stronger since his diagnosis. In perhaps the most emotional moment of the interview, Dane said, “I talk to her every day. We have managed to become better friends and better parents. And she is … probably my biggest champion and my most stalwart supporter. And I lean on her.”
Part 2 of the Dane interview will air on GMA tomorrow. The segment will feature the actor and his physician.
The Mayo Clinic describes ALS as “a nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord,” causing a “loss of muscle control. The disease gets worse over time.” The average life expectancy after diagnosis is 2-5 years.
