Luka Kovac

As attending physician of the ER, Luka mentored numerous medical students and residents through their medical careers. He was original a moonlighting physician but eventually became a permanent attending physician. Luka Kovač was the son of Josip Kovač, an amateur painter and train conductor on a Zagreb train line, and an unnamed mother. He has one brother, Niko. He spoke of having a joyful, though financially modest, childhood; he told Carol Hathaway he and his brother once rented out various farm animals from their grandfather's farm to a Swedish film set nearby as a way to make some money. He grew up in an unnamed city near the coast. When of age, Luka served his mandatory year of service in the Croatian Army and saw combat. He attended medical school in Croatia, with colleagues Dr. Gordana Horvat, Stipe, and Tomo; the latter two were his roommates. After their finals, the four hit a goat with their car on a drive up to Vukovar. Despite their attempts at CPR, and botched ideas of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and a chest tube, the goat passed away. Gordana referred to the goat as the "first patient Luka ever lost". The family resided in a small apartment in Vukovar. When the Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) broke out, Danijela wished to move out of Vukovar; however, Luka had to finish his internship. He ended up waiting too long, and it became unsafe to leave. Luka and Danijela kept their children inside; they struggled with cabin fever. When he went out to the market one morning, his apartment building was hit by an artillery/mortar shell. His infant son died instantly. His wife, while bleeding profusely from a piece of shrapnel embedded in her spleen, was still alive when he found her; however, he insisted on performing CPR to his pulseless daughter, who was breathing when he first found her. He continued the resuscitation for hours, praying for someone to come by and help; he only stopped hours later when he was too exhausted to continue. Luka later moved to the United States of America some time after that for a fresh start. This was a move unpopular with his brother Niko, who accused him of cowardice. He worked as a moonlighting physician, travelling north in the summer and "flying" south in the winter; Carol comments his migration was bird-like. At age 28, Luka starts his career at County General as a locum tenens physician. He assists the ER after a mass casualty when a vehicle crashes through a coffee shop. Luka would assist in more cases up until Kerry Weaver fires him after he goaded a patient's husband into punching him to prove that the husband was an abuser. He returns as a full-time attending physician after Gabriel Lawrence was let go due to his growing Alzheimer's. Luka is a quiet, but no doubt passionate doctor. His greatest strength is his care for his patients; he will go above and beyond, even breaking some rules, to make sure his patients get the care they wish for. While he is professional at work, he lets emotion dictate his choices when children get involved. Dr. Gordana Horvat, a surgeon who went to medical school with Luka, reveals Luka was a prankster in college, "always pulling practical jokes" and having a "contagious smile". Upon meeting him again in Chicago, she comments to Abby Lockhart that he's changed significantly from that time. He stands at 6'4 with his hair usually slick back, a dark brown. He has blue-green eyes with a big nose, a slim diamond shaped face and a muscular build.