Ethan Ramsey

Ethan Ramsey, a character in the Open Heart series, is one of the doctors at Edenbrook Hospital and one of your love interests. He is first seen in Book 1, Chapter 1.

Appearance
Ethan has blue eyes, brown hair, light skin and a stubble. His casual outfit consists of a gray cardigan over a light blue checkered shirt and beige trousers. In Book 2, Chapter 1, he returns from the Amazon and sports a new look. In Chapter 1's premium scene, you can influence him on whether or not he keeps the full beard and jacket. Later, you can also encourage him to keep his glasses or take them off. Otherwise he reverts to his original look. His new casual look consists of an olive green leather jacket and white henley shirt. He is also noted to be very tall, and could have played basketball in high school.

Personality
"I became a doctor to attempt to do some good in this world, not to pander to the powerful or engage in petty hijinks."

- Ethan to You

Even though he is hard on you, he has a caring side towards his patients. He would rather use his energy focusing on his patients than use it to socialize or make someone's day better. He admits to not having unlimited patience. He believes idolatry among physicians is absurd; they're there to teach practical medicine. He used to see diagnosing patients like a game he had mastered, competing against death and winning. However, losing Dolores and the threat losing Naveen makes him reconsider his outlook.

Background
In Book 1, Chapter 8's premium scene, Ethan says he is not close to his family; his parents didn't approve or help him become a doctor. His proudest achievement was applying to medical school and leaving behind a path that had been planned for him.

"I always felt like my age held me back from doing the things I wanted to do, exploring the things I wanted to explore. I hated not being taken seriously. I was serially underestimated, by adults, teachers. And whenever I would prove myself, they would think I was undermining them."

- Ethan to You

In Book 2, this background changes. He states that his mother left him and his father 25 years ago. He doesn't remember much except that he was 11 years old and she said she needed to go to grocery store and never came back. His father searched for her and called the police; when they found her, she told them that she was dumping him and one of the police officers laughed. Ethan was very angry, more so towards his father because his father forgave her. According to his father, Ethan has always loved to solve mysteries. When he was a teenager, he considered becoming a cop because he liked to play detective but chose in the end to become a doctor. While his father wanted him to become a basketball player due to his height, his father said he would be proud of Ethan even if the younger man was a poor chef making bad pancakes. Nowadays, Ethan visits his father every month in Providence, Rhode Island, where they hail from.

Meeting Your Character
Although Ethan doesn't meet Your Character in person until you two find yourselves in the middle of a medical emergency, Ethan had known of you before you ever stepped foot into the hospital as he had read your file and given his evaluation on your application for residency. He approved your match to Edenbrook because he believed he saw someone with the potential to be truly great, the perfect doctor if only he challenged and pushed you hard enough.

During Your Character's first year internship, you become Ethan's unofficial protege and it becomes obvious very quickly that he is not the type of mentor to hold someone's hand and guide them to epiphanies. Instead his appreach to teaching seems to be more of a learning-by-doing variant, sometimes on a level that might be considered brash and rude by others. No matter his attitude, he is highly respected for his knowledge and skills, and through it all you learn to develope your very own way of treating patients, applying personal experiences and relationships to your book smarts and education.

Losing Dolores Hudson
"Just know... this wasn't your fault. Or mine. Or Dolores's. We all made the best decisions we could with the information we had."

- Ethan Ramsey

Over ten years ago, when Ethan was an intern still, Dolores was his very first patient. She had come in with a burst appendix and was freaking out, and he helped calm her down. Some time after he decided to email her just to check in on her, an email that led to chats over coffee, more emails, and, eventually, to meetings every couple of months for Sunday roast. At the time Ethan was very grateful for their friendship because he didn't make friends easily even then.

In Chapter 4, you take on Dolores Hudson as a patient when she is brought into the emergency room for smoke inhalation. When Ethan hears about it, he quickly decides to accompany you for her examination and they briefly catch up as you listen to her heart and take observations. Doloroes becomes upset when she checks her purse and realizes she can't find the stuffed frog she had bought for her unborn baby. You can either volunteer Ethan and yourself to retrieve it in a premium choice or just get her the next best thing.

Regardless of your choice, the two of you later diagnose that Dolores has preeclampsia and that her baby would need to be delivered early. She, however, protests saying that unless her baby is at immediate risk, she would not consent. Ethan tells her that he will give her a day to think it through, and he and you leave her room in the hopes that Dolores will change her mind. After, Ethan tells you to go home as your shift had ended hours ago, that there is nothing to be done at the moment but give her time. Later, you are notified that Dolores was rushed into emergency surgery. You race to the hospital only to find Ethan sitting alone in the waiting room; he lets you know that Dolores had a seizure and died in surgery but that they were able to deliver the baby, whom she named Ethan Hudson.

Failing Naveen Banerji
Naveen Banerji is Ethan's mentor and old colleague, for whom Ethan has the utmost respect. Similar to Ethan's professional relationship with you, Naveen had taken Ethan under his wing when the latter first arrived at Edenbrook.

When Naveen unexpectedly retires in Chapter 4, his position as Head of the Diagnostics Team falls to Ethan. While the promotion itself does not upset Ethan, it is instead Naveen's medical condition that causes him stress and anxiety since both of them so far failed to even diagnose Naveen's ailment. Aware of the older man's stubbornness and need for privacy, Ethan convinces him to stay at Edenbrook in secret under the alias "Patient X". When you discover who "Patient X" is, Ethan recruits you to help.

"I tried everything, Naveen". "I know you did, Ethan. Marvelous, isn't it? After all this time, life still had a mystery the two of us couldn't solve."

- Ethan Ramsey and Naveen Banerji

In Chapter 13, Ethan has to tell Naveen that the latter only has one month to live. As Ethan is unsure whether to allow his unofficial patient to leave the hospital or not, you influence his decision to either let Naveen go to spend that last month at home or keep him admitted by gently (and without physical touching) restraining him. Whichever decision is made, Ethan quits immediately after, believing he has failed in saving his friend and that your belief in him is misplaced as well. In the end, and despite your attempt to stop him, he walks out of the hospital.

Your Character and the Ethics Board
In Chapter 15, when you ask Ethan to testify on your behalf at the Ethics Hearing, Ethan tells you that he would but can't, seeing that Harper Emery will not allow him to do so due to his bias. Just as he had failed to save Dolores and Naveen, he is depressed that he can't do anything to save you either. However, when you and Landry come up with a theory about what might be wrong with Naveen and your tests prove your theory to be true shortly after, it gives Ethan hope to at least be able save his old friend - if he's not too late with the cure.

The next day, as you speak in front of the Ethics Committee, Ethan turns up with a surprise guest in toe: Teresa Martinez's son Luis. Mr. Martinez states that he will withdraw his lawsuit, even going as far as apologizing to you. Only ever as a child had he seen his mother as happy as he had in the postcards documenting her last days alive. With Naveen's arrival and his vote in your favor, the board comes to the decision to not press charges against you nor recommend for you to lose your medical license, reinstating you as an employee of Edenbrook hospital instead.

Ethan also returns to the hospital, retaking his position as Head of Diagnostics as Naveen steps up to become Chief of Medicine. It is also Naveen who recommends you for the junior fellow position, which Ethan professionally approoves of. However, if you pursue Ethan romantically, Ethan puts your personal relationship on hold once more, not wanting it to jeopardize your career.

The Diagnostics Team
"Being a doctor means you always lose in the end. But that doesn't mean you quit. It means you fight until your last breath."

- Ethan to You

As a second year resident and junior fellow, you find yourself working directly under Ethan as a part of his Diagnostics Team. The group is highly respected and fast-paced, much like Ethan himself, and you find your place on the team. When Edenbrook's funding and financial solvency begin to deteriorate, Ethan finds himself at odds with your methods of trying to save the hospital. He feels that seeking celebrities or wealthy patients would undermine treating low-income patients that need medical services more, but you reason that celebrities and wealthy patients are still patients that need care and if they are unable to be successfully treated by other hospitals and physicians, they need the expertise of the Diagnostics Team just as much as patients who are unable to afford to pay. However, no matter how many high profile patients you save, Edenbrook eventually closes.

When Leland Bloom later buys Edenbrook, Ethan, you, as well as the rest of the physicians and staff are reinstated to your previous positions. However grateful for the job, Ethan begins to clash with Leland regarding staffing. Leland wants Ethan to strongly consider adding Dr. Mendoza from Mass Kenmore to the Diagnostics Team, but Ethan is adamant about not doing so. Dr. Mendoza has the reputation for treating his patients like guinea pigs and caring more about flashy new procedures than patient care, but Leland believes the new Edenbrook needs doctors willing to take risks.

Louise Ramsey
Twenty-five years ago when she left, Ethan tells you that he doesn't remember much from the incident except that he was 11 years old and she said she needed to go to grocery store and never came back. Although he is angry with her, he is afraid that if he listens to her explain herself, he will lose all rational capability and let her back into his life.

In Chapter 13, she is admitted to the hospital's emergency room unconscious. She has blue lips and fingertips, shallow breathing, and track marks on her arm. You two come to the conclusion that she has overdosed on opioids and begin treatment. Ethan does his best to remain professional and he does not look down on her with the negative connotations associated with drug addicts. He treats her like he would treat any other patient, discharges her from the hospital, and takes her to the Willow Hill Recovery Center. He threatens the receptionist that if he finds out their mission and purpose are all lies and they actually create "repeat" customers, he will bring it up to the state licensing committee.

It is your choice to help Ethan repair his relationship with his mother and begin to forgive her. If you do not accompany Ethan to the rehabilitation center, he does not forgive her. If you choose to go with him, you can tell him to walk away or forgive her. If you choose the second, Louise apologizes to Ethan for what she had done. She tries to explain that she was young and felt trapped in family life. She wanted more, but she felt restless and back then, she thought that settling down made her abandon everything that made her who she was and who she wanted to be. Later, she realized her mistake and thought about returning or about coming to explain but was scared to. The years kept increasing and after a while, she felt it was too late to try.

Book 1

 * Chapter 1: The Doctor Is In
 * Chapter 2: Code Blue
 * Chapter 3: Hanging in the Balance
 * Chapter 4: Dolores
 * Chapter 5: Relief
 * Chapter 6: Housewarming
 * Chapter 7: Patient X
 * Chapter 8: Make-Believe
 * Chapter 9: The Pita
 * Chapter 10: Risk and Reward
 * Chapter 11: Whatever it Takes
 * Chapter 12: Panacea
 * Chapter 13: Admission
 * Chapter 14: Triage (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 15: Hearing Impaired
 * Chapter 16: The Curious Case of Dr. Banerji
 * Chapter 17: The Oath

Book 2

 * Chapter 1: Prognosis
 * Chapter 2: The Interns
 * Chapter 3: What's Done Is Done
 * Chapter 4: Blind Spot
 * Chapter 5: Influence
 * Chapter 6: Buying Time
 * Chapter 7: Wake-Up Call
 * Chapter 8: Fair Game
 * Chapter 9: Undetected
 * Chapter 10: The Senator
 * Chapter 11: Countdown
 * Chapter 12: Control
 * Chapter 13: Time Bomb
 * Chapter 14: Snowball
 * Chapter 15: Do No Harm
 * Chapter 16: The Kindness of Strangers
 * Chapter 17: Hopeful Hearts
 * 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
 * Chapter 4: Power Struggles
 * Chapter 5: Too Late
 * Chapter 6: Checks and Balances

With Every Heartbeat

 * Chapter 7: Worried Sick
 * Chapter 10: The Hereafter (Determinant)

Your Character
In Book 1, Dr. Ramsey first encounters you when a woman collapses in the waiting room as you're walking by. You assist him in diagnosing a hemothorax and performing an emergency thoracotomy but he criticizes your speed and technique. Regardless of your response to his cutting remarks, it is this instance that sets you apart from your fellow interns and causes jealousy to arise. When a position on his world-renowned Diagnostics Team opens and the senior staff decides to make it a competition between the first year interns, you first tell him that you are not interested because you don't want to jeopardize your friendships. However, when you realize that competition makes you and your friends better doctors, you hurry to sign up at the last minute.

During the course of your first year, Dr. Ramsey becomes your unofficial mentor. He talks to you about coping with patients' deaths, challenges you with difficult patients, and encourages you to think outside the box. In Chapter 9, he accidentally reveals to you that it was his evaluation that got you matched to Edenbrook Hospital. He says that he believed he saw someone who could be truly great when he read your application. In Chapter 12, if you choose to tell Ethan that you caused Teresa Martinez's death by giving her the dosage of V-3706, he tells you that he wished you would have thought about your future before doing so. However, what's done is done and he tells you that you shouldn't let your guilt distract you or your current and future patients will suffer for it.

If you decide to pursue Ethan romantically, you are able to kiss him for the first time in Chapter 10's premium scene. However, he tries to resist you during most of your pursuit, stating that an attending/intern relationship would not work as he has seen the horror stories of such relationships. Attendings are responsible for the managing and training of residents, and he believes that it would be an inappropriate work relationship and harmful for your career. In Chapter 11, he pretends as if nothing has happened and asks that you not mention the kiss at work. In Chapter 12, you have the option to join Ethan for a night at the opera where you can kiss him (again). If you kiss him, he is initially hesitant due to the work politics, but gives into you momentarily before stopping it once again.

In Chapter 15, when you ask Ethan to testify on your behalf at the Ethics Hearing, it comes to light that he cannot and that he is frustrated that he has never been able to help anyone he truly cares about including you. Emery would not allow it because he is too biased. You both acknowledge this to be true, leading to the realization that you and Ethan no longer work together. After this, you have the premium option to consummate your relationship with Ethan. He says he tried not to fall for you, but he could not resist.

In Chapter 16, when you and Landry come to a theory about what is plaguing Naveen, you return to Ethan's apartment to get him. If you are correct in your diagnosis, Ethan is the only physician you know that can correctly dose the therapy needed. After he succeeds in doing so, you go to the Ethics Hearing and Ethan soon follows with Teresa's son, who withdraws his lawsuit after he realizes how happy his mother was and how you were able to give her that even for a short time.

In Chapter 17, Ethan returns to Edenbrook and is promoted as the Head of the Diagnostics Team. When Naveen promotes you to the Diagnostics Team, that complicates your relationship with Ethan if you pursue him romantically. He withdraws back to his unwillingness to jeopardize your career and reputation by combining a personal and professional relationship with you.

In Book 2, you are now a second year resident and junior fellow on Edenbrook's Diagnostics Team. As Ethan's direct coworker now, you can call him out on his attitude in front of June and Baz if you choose to. Ethan is still available to give you advice, but he asks you to help him with schmoozing and socializing with people like Governor Rivera and Senator Farrugia.

If you pursue Ethan romantically, he comes to a change of heart in Chapter 11 when crisis strikes Edenbrook and Travis Perry releases an unknown biological weapon in the hospital in an attempt to kill Senator Farrugia. When you are infected by the weapon, Ethan and your friends as well as physicians from rival hospital Mass Kenmore seek to find the cure before it's too late. This event forces Ethan to come to terms with his feelings for you and he agrees to a public relationship with you, deciding to not hide his feelings any longer. You are still able to pursue other romantic interests if you choose to, but his public display of affection cements your relationship in front of your coworkers' eyes.

In Chapter 20, when Leland Bloom decides to buy Edenbrook and the hospital reopens, both of you return to your previous jobs with Ethan as Head of the Diagnostics Team and you as the junior member. Depending on your choices regarding Leland, you find yourself either on Ethan's side against Leland's managerial style or against Ethan as Leland's advocate.

Dr. Aurora Emery
Because you and Aurora are assigned as partners for your first batch of patients, Dr. Ramsey is also Aurora's attending physician. He chastises her for ignoring cases that are not challenging, and tells her that her patients are not optional assignments.

Dr. Harper Emery
As of last year, Harper is his boss. In Chapter 4, you see them talking privately and can eavesdrop on them or not. If you eavesdrop on them, you hear that he will fight her every step of the way. With the other interns, you find out that they were discussing the position he is vacating to become the new head of the diagnostics unit. They have decided to open it as a junior fellow and the new interns may compete for it. Their work throughout the year will determine who wins the position. In a premium scene of the same chapter, it's revealed that he had a fling with her, an on and off relationship that has been "off" since she became his boss about a year ago.

In Chapter 6, if asked, he will tell you that he has feelings of respect, admiration, and collegiality for her; you will note that there is still something he isn't telling you there.

Dr. Naveen Banerji
He was Ethan's mentor and offers wisdom to him. In Chapter 3, you overhear a heated argument between them that makes Ethan punch the wall and tell Naveen that he is no longer his teacher. In Chapter 4, you find out Naveen retired and Ethan has been promoted to his position. Ethan doesn't want to let Naveen down. It is soon revealed that Dr. Banerji has an unknown disease when your character's curiosity gets better of him or her to find out who Patient X is. If you decide to go to Ethan's home to talk about Dr. Banerji in private, you can tell he is upset and depressed about the situation. In Chapter 12, he is able to tell you that he is scared because it seems he cannot save him. In Chapter 16, when you and Landry crack the case, Ethan has to call in a favor at a university lab to get the phage for Naveen's treatment.

Declan Nash
Declan Nash and Ethan share a history, which includes Ethan punching Declan in the face and humiliating Declan publicly. In Chapter 10, Ethan asks you to ask Declan discreetly and gather intel on his company's experimental sepsis treatment program to potentially help Naveen. You agree to help but no matter how you play your part, Declan spots Ethan and doesn't give you the answers you need.

That evening, Ethan challenges Declan to a card game. If Ethan wins, his prize is getting the treatment for Naveen; if Declan wins, he gets a contract with Ethan's team. Ethan lets Declan win (so it publicly strokes his ego) and in turn, Nash gives Ethan the treatment anyway.

Tobias Carrick
He tells Your Character in Book 2, Chapter 6, that he and Tobias were at one point really close friends; practically brothers. But that their competitive natures eventually got in the way, and the relationship soured. Ethan goes onto say that, they both wanted too many of the same things, like the highest GPA... The best residency... and that even fell for the same man (if your character is male) or woman (if your character is female).

Despite their rivalry, Tobias was willing to help find a cure when you, Rafael, Danny, and Bobby are poisoned. Aurora said watching them work together was like them doing ballet.

June Hirata
Dr. June Hirata is one of Ethan's colleagues and fellow member of the Diagnostics Team. They have a working professional relationship, but as June can not manipulate Ethan as easily as she could you, she appears superficially friendly towards him. She sometimes chides or teases him in front of the team, but he doesn't respond in kind. When she decides to quit Edenbrook, he does not appear affected by her decision. He also does not push for her reinstatement when Leland Bloom buys Edenbrook.

Book 2

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Book 3

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Miscellaneous

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Trivia

 * He is shown on the covers of Open Heart, Book 1, Open Heart: Second Year and Open Heart: Third Year.
 * He shares the same first name as Ethan Blake from Red Carpet Diaries.
 * The name Ethan is of Hebrew origin, which means: Strong, safe, firm, solid, enduring.
 * The second name Jonah is of Hebrew origin and means "dove". He reveals his middle name in Chapter 16.
 * The surname Ramsey is of Old English and means "island of wild garlic" or "low-lying land".
 * He has a fellowship in Diagnostic Medicine.
 * He has published Diagnostic Principles - a textbook - as well as papers on systemic amyloidosis, Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome, and spinocerebellar ataxia (which was his undergrad thesis, published in a journal that is currently no longer printed).
 * He once tore apart the research of the American Medical Association's president during the president's keynote address. He has also won the Adeyemi Prize, and was keynote speaker at the A.A.D.M. conference (A.A.D.M. is the American Academy of Disaster Medicine, but Pixelberry probably fictionalized it to mean the American Academy of Diagnostic Medicine).
 * In a premium scene in Chapter 4, he'll reveal to you that he is 36.
 * The first patient he lost was during his fourth week (of residency). His patient wasn't much older than 36 years old, and had stage four metastatic melanoma, and even though Ethan knew his patient didn't have long to live, his patient's death hit him hard.
 * In Chapter 4, he tells Mrs. Martinez that when he was younger, he was a "lovable scoundrel" and got away with everything.
 * In Chapter 5, during a premium scene, Ethan mentions he no longer speaks with his former co-workers while he was in residency, as the hyper-competitive nature ruined their friendships.
 * In Chapter 6, during a premium scene, Ethan reveals he has a dog named Jenner, named after Edward Jenner, "father of immunology". He also reveals that his biggest embarrassment was when he was still a resident and misdiagnosed a patient. He was mortified and vowed to never let it happen again. If asked, he says that he's not sure if he wants children saying "I'm not sure if that's in the cards for me. I don't think I'd be able to be there for them, at least not the way they need".
 * If he has spare time, he enjoys reading historical non-fiction.
 * As of Chapter 13, he no longer works at Edenbrook Hospital after quitting for not being able to cure Naveen Banerji. He returns to work in Chapter 16.
 * On June, 20, 2019, it was revealed that in the update for the Choices App on this day, one of the new ads for the app features Ethan and a version of Your Character.
 * During the break between Open Heart, Book 1 and Open Heart: Second Year, he spent two months helping the World Health Organization respond to an unspecified outbreak in the Amazon.
 * In Book 2, Chapter 5, he mentions that he is now 37 and says that this technically makes him a millennial.
 * In Book 2, Chapter 9, if you recruit Ethan to help you sneak into Mass Kenmore and choose to hide in the supply closet, he states that the last time he hid in a supply closet was when he was an intern.
 * On April 10, 2020, Pixelberry tweeted their #QuarantineHouse challenge, placing Ethan in House 2 with Quinn Kelly, Caleb Mitchell, Landry Olsen, Olivia Nevrakis, and Hayden Young.
 * He is a playable character in Book 2, Chapter 11.