Eric Dane, best known for his role as Dr. McSteamy on Grey’s Anatomy, is now reportedly using a wheelchair and struggling to speak, according to heartbreaking updates from friends following his ALS diagnosis..

For years, Eric Dane was best known as Dr. “McSteamy,” the charismatic Dr. Mark Sloan on Grey’s Anatomy, captivating fans with his charm and confidence.

But in April 2025, the 52-year-old star revealed he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – a progressive, incurable neurological disease more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease – launching him into a heartbreaking health battle off-screen.

“I have been diagnosed with ALS,” he told People at the time. Expressing his gratitude to his wife, Rebecca Gayheart, and their two daughters – Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13 – the star of Euphoria added, “I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next…I kindly ask that you give my family and I privacy during this time.”

Fatal disease

Over time, ALS robs patients of the ability to walk, speak, and even breathe independently.

ALS “often begins with muscle twitching and weakness in an arm or leg, trouble swallowing or slurred speech,” the Mayo Clinic explains. “Eventually ALS affects control of the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe. There is no cure for this fatal disease.”

While survival time varies, the disease has taken the lives of many high-profile figures, including actress Sandra Bullock’s longtime partner Bryan Randall in 2023 and SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg in 2018.

One of the most well-known people to live with ALS was physicist Stephen Hawking, who defied the odds by surviving more than five decades before his death in 2018.

ALS treatment advocacy

Despite the devastating diagnosis, Dane has vowed to keep fighting. Recently he traveled to Washington, D.C., advocating for more research and support for neurodegenerative diseases, CNN reports.

While meeting with U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell of California, Dane – slurring his speech – described ALS as “the last thing they want to diagnose anybody with,” underscoring the devastating reality of the disease.

Dane’s appearance in Washington also drew attention to the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act, which was signed into law in 2021. The act provided five years of funding for ALS research and granted patients earlier access to treatments. Unless renewed, that legislation will expire in 2026, underscoring the urgency of his advocacy.

“I’m going to ring every bell..I have two daughters at home. I want to see them, you know, graduate college, and get married and maybe have grandkids,” Dane told Swalwell. “You know, I want to be there for all that. So, I’m going to fight to the last breath on this one.”

Paralysis

In June, speaking with Diane Sawyer, Dane candidly revealed how quickly the disease was changing his body. At the time, he said he had only “one functioning arm.”

“I didn’t really think anything of it at the time. I thought maybe I’d been texting too much, or my hand was fatigued, but a few weeks later I noticed it got a little worse,” he told Sawyer on Good Morning America.

“My dominant side. My left side is functioning; my right side has completely stopped working. It’s going. I feel like maybe a couple, few more months, and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering,” he added.

His condition appears to have worsened dramatically since then. According to RadarOnline, Dane now requires the use of a wheelchair and “struggles to speak.”

‘Tomorrow isn’t promised’

Friends say that the progression has been swift and devastating, taking a toll not only on his body but also on his spirit.

“This diagnosis has been devastating,” a source told the Daily Mail. “All through this, it just keeps getting worse and is very sad, but Eric is trying to put on as much of a brave face as possible because he wants to enjoy what he has now because he now knows with his full heart that tomorrow isn’t promised.

“He wants to live life and he doesn’t want people grieving him or for him while he is going through this terrible disease, he just wants the people in his life to be present and as happy as they can be, he wants to always surround himself with positivity, that is a major thing that is driving him nowadays.”

‘Very hopeful’

Despite the horror of his decline, the star vows to keep fighting the disease: “I will fly to Germany and eat the head off a rattlesnake if [doctors] told me that that would help,” he joked with Sawyer. “I’ll assume the risk.”

He added, “I’m very hopeful … I don’t think this is the end of my story. And whether it is or it isn’t, I’m gonna carry that idea with me.”

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