The actor who brought us Mark Sloan in “Grey’s Anatomy” and Cal Jacobs in “Euphoria” is now receiving around-the-clock care as he battles amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The update came from Eric Dane’s wife Rebecca Gayheart, who split up with her husband in 2018 but reconnected to help care for Dane and their family after his ALS diagnosis in April, The Independent reported.
“Eric has 24/7 nurses now,” Gayheart said according to the media outlet.
Dane’s wife also spoke about her battle with insurance companies to gain approval for full-time care.
“With the nurses, the woman from his insurance said to me ‘You can keep applying, and I’ll keep denying,’ I was like, Oh? [expletive] that,” she said. “I made it my mission. I was ‘locked in,’ as the kids would say. I crashed out, and then I locked in. And we got it approved after two appeals.”
Gayheart said that weeks are divided into 21 shifts and during times when shifts aren’t covered, she fills in.
“It’s all been really positive, and I think it’s nice for the kids to see maybe a softer side of us,” Gayheart said. “It’s not that they have the hopes of us being together — kids always dream of their parents getting back together, and I think now ours don’t because they understand the reality of the situation. And hopefully, what they see instead are two adults who are trying to be mature and focus on what’s important.”
ALS, otherwise referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, affects the nervous system. The non-curable disease affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, eventually causing paralysis and restricting essential bodily functions such as speaking, eating and breathing, according to the Mayo Clinic. The CDC estimates 33,000 people in the U.S. are currently diagnosed with ALS.
Since his diagnosis, Dane has been vocal about his personal medical journey and has been spreading awareness about ALS.
Earlier this month, he also had an on-screen role playing Mathew, a firefighter and 9/11 hero diagnosed with ALS in an episode of “Brilliant Minds,” PEOPLE reported.
The actor called the experience “cathartic,” though he admitted the most challenging part was separating himself from a character whose struggles felt “so real to him.”
“I have no reason to be in a good spirit at any time, on any given day, I don’t think anybody would blame me if I went upstairs in my bedroom, crawled under the sheets and spent the next two weeks crying,” he said during a recent event hosted by the nonprofit I Am ALS. “I was a little bit pleasantly surprised when I realized that I wasn’t built like that, because I thought for sure that was gonna be me.”
Dane continued, “I make sure that people are aware of what ALS is and what it’s about. … And more importantly, what we can do to combat it and improve the landscape. Because it’s so rocky and littered with hurdles and bureaucracy and all this other nonsense that we’re trying to sift through so we can get to a place where we go, start working on a solution.”