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. In a premium scene from Book 3, Chapter 4, it is revealed that Leland wears a toupée along with false teeth.
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. After he buys Edenbrook, he shows signs that he cares more about scientific advancement rather than patient care.
Chapters
Open Heart
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
- Chapter 4: Power Struggles
- Chapter 5: Too Late
- Chapter 6: Checks and Balances
- Chapter 7: Team Players
- Chapter 8: The Die Is Cast
- Chapter 9: Build Up
- Chapter 10: Ceasefire (Mentioned)
- Chapter 11: Wedding Belles (Mentioned)
- Chapter 12: Steady Hand (Mentioned)
- Chapter 13: Building Up (Mentioned)
- Chapter 14: Against the Boards (Mentioned)
- Chapter 15: Day in Court
- Chapter 16: Moving On
Relationships
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.
After your diagnosis that she is allergic to Leland's antibodies, they are both devastated that they cannot touch each other any more. Leland becomes committed to find a cure and buys Edenbrook. He uses Edenbrook's research and diagnostic teams to find a cure by having them treat and research any related disease. The more related a disease is to Caroline's, the more involved he gets on the diagnostic team and the more resources the research team gets. This includes him making the diagnostic team run tests on an already diagnosed patient that make the already exhausted patient suffer and him readmitting former patient Suzette to have her participate in a study that would risk her health without any gains for her. If you investigate his office, you have the choice to read a letter from Caroline to Leland about how proud she is of what he is achieving at Edenbrook and how much she misses being with him. The letter then proceeds to get too intimate for you and Jackie to keep reading it aloud.
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.
As of Book 3, Edenbrook has undergone multiple changes after Leland has bought it. This includes more money for each resident which you profit from as it can help you settle your student loan debts. You can also order expensive tests to diagnose your patients more easily. However, Leland uses his status as Underwriter to force you and the rest of the diagnostics team to agree to changes made by him, such as when Leland decides in Chapter 3 to start a pilot study, to readmit your former patient Suzette, and place her under the diagnostic team's care without having consulted with any of you. Even when you tell him that there's nothing you can do for her, he dismisses any protests.
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.
- "This is my hospital, and I make the rules. I expect that you play by them if you wish to continue working here."
- —Leland to Ethan in Book 3, Chapter 3
In Book 3, Chapter 3, after Leland has bought Edenbrook, he decides to readmit a patient that you have just discharged with a diagnosis and treatment plan. Leland has her join a newly launched pilot study and also places her under the diagnostic team's care. When Ethan protests, Leland threatens to have him fired. After learning that the study wouldn't benefit the patient but would instead danger her health, Ethan goes to her to convince her to opt out and you can join him in a premium scene. Regardless of the premium scene, she quits the study after that conversation. Leland then starts to interfere more often with the choice of patients the diagnostic team takes on. Stating that Ethan's time to find a replacement for Baz has run out, Leland brings Tobias Carrick into the diagnostic team.
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.
Gallery
Other Looks
Miscellaneous
Trivia
- The name Leland is of English origin and means "land of wood, clearing, meadow, fallow".
- Leland shares the same first name as Leland St. James from the Red Carpet Diaries series.
- He bears a resemblance to American actor Dustin Hoffman.
Memorable Quotes
Ethan: Of course, why knock when you're entering a private office where we discuss sensitive patient information? Leland: I'll tell you what I told my sons growing up: when you own the place, 'private' doesn't hold much water. |