Months after Eric Dane died of complications associated with ALS, another Grey’s Anatomy actor has been diagnosed with the same neurological disorder.
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While appearing on CNN’s The Story with Elex Michaelson over the weekend, Russell Andrews said he was diagnosed last fall.
“It’s been humbling,” he explained about his ALS journey so far. “But there’s also something in the fact that I walked into a family of very caring people, people I did not know a year ago.”
Andrews noted that while he was recently diagnosed, he did feel ALS symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There were moments, there were twitches, there were things I thought I was having pinched nerves in my neck, and they were quite frequent,” he recalled. “Then I was not able to do things that I normally do.”
“I was dropping cups and glasses, and at night,” he added. “It felt like things were running up and down my arm at different times.”
Dane previously passed away from ALS less than a year after his diagnosis. He spoke about his treatments in the I AM ALS documentary short titled Ring Every Bell.
“It’s a hard thing to live with, and it’s a hard thing for the…” Dane said while becoming emotional. “It’s a hard thing for the people around me.”
“He then pointed out, “And this is all new to me, this is uncharted territory,” he pointed out. “I’m just trying to, like, walk through this thing with as much grace and dignity as I can so I can show my kids, this is how you do this.”
Andrews’ Fiancée Wasn’t Surprised By the Diagnosis
The actor’s fiancée, Erica Tazel, also further explained that she was “uncharacteristically calm” when she found out about the diagnosis. She didn’t find it surprising.
“In a way, it was an answer to a lot of questions that we had. There were certain things that we started to see that were different,” she noted. “For example, it took him longer to clean the pool, the way he walked, there was just the subtle little things like that and I had questions. I was like, ‘Something is definitely wrong.’”
Despite the circumstances, Tazel noted that she and Andrews are still planning to get married.
“When he shared the news with me, again, there was not a sigh of relief,” she added. “But some understanding of what was happening. I looked at him across the room, and I said, ‘At least now we know what it is, and I still want to be your wife.’”
Andrews appeared on Grey’s Anatomy as Hugh Davis in the season 10 episode Thriller.
In addition to Grey’s Anatomy, Andrews has appeared in other hit series, including Better Call Saul and Insecure.