Eric Dane offered insight into the progression of his ALS diagnosis before his death at age 53. Dane revealed his health battle in April 2025. ALS stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and has no cure. "I didn't really think anything of it at the time; I thought maybe I'd been texting too much and my hand was fatigued," he recalled several months later on Good Morning America. "A few weeks later, I noticed it'd gotten a little worse. I went and saw a hand specialist, who sent me to another hand specialist.