Levi Coates

Levi Coates, a character in the Open Heart series, was one of Esme Ortega's patients at Edenbrook Hospital. He makes his official appearance in Book 2, Chapter 13.

Appearance
Levi has wavy black hair, brown eyes and light skin.

Personality
Levi can be described as flirty, as he tries to flirt with Esme when you accompany her to his room. He's also cheerful and funny, and doesn't let his condition cast a cloud upon his mood. On the other hand, he's a realist and he realises that he won't be around forever and that he won't beat his condition.

Background
Levi was involved in a car accident three years ago. He was leaning forward to search for something when the car was hit by a drunk driver and as a result, the airbag fully hit his forehead and threw him back in a wrong angle. He had a severe concussion and associated brain trauma. This resulted in chronic pain which varies from day to day but never goes away and is especially bad if anything touches him, including clothes and bed sheets. He has had three surgeries to repair the nerve damage but the last one left him paralyzed for two weeks. He was in college on a football scholarship (where he played quarterback) and possibly could have gone professional if it wasn't for the accident.

Book 2

 * Chapter 13: Time Bomb
 * Chapter 14: Snowball (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 15: Do No Harm (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 16: The Kindness of Strangers (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 17: Hopeful Hearts (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 18: Inevitable (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 20: Picking Sides (Mentioned)

Esme Ortega
Levi is Esme's patient who suffers from long term complications from a car accident three years ago. He and Esme seem to be flirty with each other, and he calls her "Dr. Stormcloud" and says she's the scary doctor of his dreams. In a premium scene, Esme can throw him a birthday party. If you decide to help, Levi says that he'll be whining more now that it is proven that it gets beautiful girls to do nice things for him. She also says that Levi is not an option for dating, as long as he is still her patient. At the end of the chapter, he dies from a morphine overdose and his parents sue her and the hospital.

Because terminally ill patients do not have a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide in the state of Massachusetts, Levi's death and Esme's role in it sparks conflict for Esme, you, and Edenbrook Hospital. If Esme admits to overdosing Levi on purpose, the hospital is cleared of negligence on its part and the fault and responsibility shift purely to Esme. If Esme states it was an accident, the hospital is held accountable as Esme's employer and she would fall under their medical malpractice or medical liability insurance.

Esme will not come forward to agree or dispute or voice the truth behind her actions. She feels that people have already judged her and so it wouldn't matter what the truth is. You as her resident have the choice to tell Edenbrook's Board of Directors what you believe - if you believe it was intentional or if it was an accident - and your choice influences your relationship with Esme as well as the outcome decided by the Board.

Your Character
You meet him when Esme suggests you accompany her to his room to check his condition. You can ask him questions to learn more, and you realize that there's a flirty dynamic between the two of them, one that you haven't seen in Esme before but say nothing. If you help Esme throw him a birthday party, you lend him Elijah's Xbox as a gift and he thanks you. If you ask him about Esme, he tells you that he met a lot of doctors over the past few years, but Esme is his favorite, because she's tough, honest, caring, gorgeous and she laughs with his jokes.

Mr. and Mrs. Coates
Mr. Coates is Levi's father. He was the one driving when the accident happened, and he blames himself for it. Levi however, tells him to stop beating himself over it because it wasn't his fault. He wants and attempts to put a brave face in front of him and his mother because he doesn't like to make them feel bad.

When Levi talks to you without his parents listening, he admits that he downplays his pain for them. He tells you that they don't and can't understand how he feels - the constant pain and agony - and he thinks they believe there is still a magical cure out there that will take it all away.

When you talk to his parents, the toil of taking care of Levi is evident by their expressions. Although they love him and want to take care of him, they mourn the life he used to have and could have had.

In Chapter 16, when Leland Bloom buys Edenbrook, his company assumes its debt including the lawsuit of the Coates against Edenbrook. If you sided with Esme and told the Board that you believed his death was an accident, she tells you that the case was settled for several million dollars. If you told the Board that Esme did it deliberately, she tells you that the police went through her life with a fine-tooth comb but the district attorney has dropped the charges against her. She and the Coates had a private conversation about Levi's death without their lawyers present and in the end, the Coates dropped their civil lawsuit against her.

Patrick
Patrick is one of Levi's friends. He shows up if you help Esme throw a birthday party for Levi. When they decide to play Xbox together, he accidentally touches him and apologises, but Levi says that it's fine and that he is happy that they are in the same room together for a change. When he says that it's his birthday and he should let him win, Patrick says that he respects him too much for that.

Trivia

 * He has the same hairstyle as Andy Kang from the It Lives series.
 * He shares the same forename as Levi Schuler from Mother of the Year.