Eric Dane's posthumous memoir recalls his daughter pulling him to safety in the water

Eric Dane wrote that one of the most frightening moments of his fight with ALS came while he was swimming. His daughter had to come to his rescue once he realized his body would no longer let him swim.

The moment in Antigua

The story appears in his upcoming autobiography, "My Book of Days: A Memoir of Moments." In an excerpt shared with PEOPLE, Dane looks back on a 2024 vacation in Antigua when he got into trouble out in the water.

Georgia, his daughter, rushed over with a friend of hers to help once it became clear he had lost the ability to swim.

A hard wake-up call

The scare forced Dane to face how far the disease had already gone. ALS was stripping away things he had always done without thinking and chipping away at his independence.

Once it was over he phoned Rebecca Gayheart, his estranged wife. He wrote that the two of them cried together as they tried to take in how close he had come to dying.

His fight with ALS

Dane went public with his diagnosis in April 2025. ALS is a progressive illness that attacks the nerve cells in charge of the muscles people move on purpose.

He spent the time that followed using his fame to raise awareness of the disease. He died at 53.

His family said then that he adored his fans and was grateful for all the love and support they sent his way.

Remembered for two big roles

Viewers knew him best as Dr. Mark Sloan on "Grey's Anatomy" and as Cal Jacobs on "Euphoria."

The book gathers the family moments that mattered most to him while the disease took away his daily abilities and in the end his life.