Francis, a character in the Open Heart series, is a patient at Edenbrook Hospital. He makes his only appearance in Book 3, Chapter 5.
Appearance
Francis has brown eyes, brown hair and a mustache, and fair-to-tan skin.
Personality
Francis is an intelligent man who loves opera and art.
Chapters
Open Heart
Book 3
- Chapter 5: Too Late
- Chapter 12: Steady Hand (Mentioned; Determinant)
Relationships
Your Character
He is your patient, who is admitted after a recent seizure, and also suffers from intermittent headaches and muscle weakness. Initial assumptions include a brain tumor and multiple sclerosis. When you talk to him, he tells you he is an investigative journalist who also teaches at Boston Northwest University. He considered pursuing medicine because he likes helping people and solving mysteries, and Ethan reveals he considered journalism as a career for the exact same reasons.
Later he experiences sudden blindness, making you and Ethan suspect optic neuritis. However, tests for several likely diseases come up negative. Later, when you return to him, he gets confused and has trouble speaking. If you decide to go to the gym with Jackie in a premium scene, an idea strikes you, leading you to conclude he has an arteriovenous malformation (A.V.M.), which is a tangle of blood vessels in the brain about to burst.
If you are the one to discover this, the CT scan shows the A.V.M. starting to hemorrhage, and if you choose to put him through surgery, he regains consciousness and is able to breathe on his own. If you didn't take the premium scene with Jackie, Tobias discovers the A.V.M., but by then it will have hemorrhaged extensively, and he will remain unconscious after the surgery with no sign of brain activity. Regardless of who discovers the A.V.M., you are the deciding vote in choosing whether Harper tries to save him or whether she should prepare the transplant team and allow his organs to be donated to save other lives.
In Chapter 12, if you and your friends decide to take Bryce out to commiserate over Henry's death, you can bring up Francis and your decision. If you caught the A.V.M. early and decided to save him, you tell your friends that the last time you saw him, he still wasn't himself and that it's possible that he'll never fully recover. Aurora tells you that you made the best decision you could under the circumstances.
Ethan Ramsey
Ethan believes that because Francis did not sign a "Do Not Resuscitate" order, they are required to do everything they can to try to save him even if chances are slim that he would recover from surgery. Ethan sees a lot of himself in Francis.
Tobias Carrick
Tobias believes that because Francis expressed that he would not want to live in an incapacitated form in front of you, that the statement is enough to abide by his wishes and allow him to die.
James Llewellyn
James is Francis's husband. If you choose to donate Francis's organs, you call him while Francis is put on life support. He decides against putting Francis through surgery and asks the team to keep Francis on life support until he can say his final goodbye. If you choose to try to save Francis, you see James talking to him afterwards. If the hemorrhage was small, you see a flicker of life in Francis although Francis remains nonverbal. If the hemorrhage was extensive, you see James more heartbroken, promising his husband that he won't leave him as Francis remains unresponsive.
Trivia
- His character model resembles Bill Holton from Most Wanted, Book 1.
- He shares the same name as Francis Cochrane from Distant Shores and Francis Somerset from The Unexpected Heiress.