Leland Bloom

Leland Bloom, a character in the Open Heart series, was a patient of Edenbrook Hospital that was treated by the Diagnostic Team. He makes his official appearance in Book 2, Chapter 6.

Appearance
Leland has blue-gray eyes, silver-gray hair, and tan skin. He wears a white dress shirt, light blue sweater, and dark blue floral ascot.

Personality
Leland is one of the biggest tech investors in history and the third richest person in America. As such, he is a shrewd and competitive businessman. He believes that competition brings out the best talent in people and is not above spending money to get what he needs. He says his initiative has gotten him everything in his life worth having, including his wife.

Book 2

 * Chapter 6: Buying Time
 * Chapter 18: Inevitable
 * Chapter 19: One Last Case
 * Chapter 20: Picking Sides

Book 3

 * Chapter 1: Edenbrook 2.0
 * Chapter 2: More Than Meets The Eye
 * Chapter 3: Look on the Bright Side

Caroline Bloom
Caroline Bloom is his wife. Caroline tells you about Leland's symptoms when your team arrives at their home, but does nothing to dissuade him about his choices. In Chapter 18, Leland asks you and the diagnostics team for help since she is dying.

Your Character
You, Ethan, Baz, and June first meet Leland at his estate. After your team's success with Gwyneth Monroe, he wants your team to compete against the Mass Kenmore team to figure out what's wrong with him. When you discover and tell him that he has Berger's disease and Ethan tells him that a double kidney transplant would theoretically be the best option in his case, he makes phone calls to secure himself the kidneys he needs. You surmise he bought them from willing donors, and feel it is unfair that he can spend the money to "buy time" while others have to wait for suitable organ donors. His disease would eventually recur with his transplanted organs but he thinks he'll die of old age before he destroys them.

In Chapter 18, at your last day at Edenbrook, he comes to the old diagnostics team's office. He asks you and Ethan for help. He states that his wife is about to die and when Ethan suggests going to Mount Mercy, he tells you two that they cannot find the cause. You and Ethan agree to do one last case to help them. In Chapter 19, you discover she has selective IgA (immunoglobin A) deficiency, which means she was born without the antibody that is responsible for fighting infections in the mouth, airway, and digestive tract. This exacerbates any mild infection. Further tests reveal she is severely allergic to IgA. Leland's Berger's disease caused a buildup of the antibody in his kidneys, and when he received his double kidney transplant, his immune system went into overdrive and created more antibody. It is now present in his sweat and saliva. Since there's no treatment for Berger's disease or SIgAD, this means Leland and Caroline can't touch each other, which devastates Leland. After you solve Caroline's case, he gives you a billion dollar check to help save Edenbrook.

Leland knows he cannot touch his wife, but he refuses to accept the fact that he never will. He believes he will be able to beat the diseases which are keeping them apart. He tells you the check is to re-make Edenbrook, to push its boundaries and allow it to explore new frontiers. He has learned in business to never take no for an answer, and he promises that he will find a cure for Caroline and for all the other people like her. His only question to you is if Edenbrook is the place where it happens. He believes you truly know the hospital and its capabilities and if it can become the place he needs it to be.

Later, you realize that the check was a test to see if he could have an ally among the doctors at Edenbrook. He had already decided to purchase the hospital, so your check was technically not needed. You have the choice to accept his offer, return the check, or tear up the check in his face.

Ethan Ramsey
When you and the team drive to Leland's house, Ethan protests pandering to rich men to help Edenbrook's financial problems. You can either blow up at him or apologize for trying to save the hospital. When he finds out that Leland wants his team to compete against Dr. Tobias Carrick's team, he is not happy. After running through his symptoms and ruling out diseases such as Hodgkin lymphoma and lupus, you suggest a kidney ultrasound to locate the source of the bleeding, but Leland refuses to cancel his yachting meeting. If you choose to join them on their yacht, you and Ethan bring a portable ultrasound machine to use. Upon your results, you tell him he needs to come back to the hospital. There, Ethan tells him he has high levels of immunoglobulin A, which has been building up in his kidneys for decades and is now damaging them. His best bet is a double kidney transplant but he would probably die waiting on the transplant list. Leland secures himself donors willing to give him a kidney each, bypassing the need to wait on the transplant list.

In Chapter 19, Leland offers Ethan a job to be Caroline's private physician, which Ethan declines. Ethan states private practice is not in his future. In Chapter 20, Leland purchases Edenbrook to remake it. He wants it to be the premier research hospital in New England as he will not believe his wife and he will be separated by their conflicting diseases forever. Leland's mission conflicts with Ethan's standard of care from the beginning, as the former suggests adding Dr. Mendoza into the Diagnostics team. Leland thinks Dr. Mendoza is a risk taker which is necessary to push the boundaries of medicine; Ethan believes Dr. Mendoza has no regard for human life and sees his patients as guinea pigs to experiment on.

Baz Mirani
Leland offers Baz a job to be Caroline's private physician, which Baz declines. Baz hopes to be able to pursue research and practice medicine where ever he goes after Edenbrook closes.

Trivia

 * Leland shares the same first name as Leland St. James from the Red Carpet Diaries series.