Dr. Luka Kovač is a fictional character on the television series ER portrayed by Goran Visnjic. Visnjic's character was added to the cast at the beginning of Season 6 (1999) following the mid-season 5 departure of leading character Dr. Doug Ross, played by George Clooney.Luka Kovač is an emergency room attending physician from Croatia. He speaks of having a joyful, though financially modest, childhood, with at least one brother, and he keeps in contact with his father, who is an amateur painter and engineer working in Croatian Railways in Zagreb. Luka served in the Croatian army, and saw combat.[citation needed] He was a family man, with a wife (Danijela), son (Marko), and daughter (Jasna). Jasna was his older child, and from a birthday photo we know she was at least four.When the Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) broke out, Luka was living in Vukovar, and was at first hesitant to move away, as he wanted to finish his internship. He ended up waiting too long, and it became unsafe to leave. While he was out one morning, a bombardment occurred, and his apartment building was hit by a mortar shell. His infant son died instantly. His wife and daughter died a few hours later. He carries guilt from the incident because he could have carried his wife to a hospital and saved her; since he instead chose to stay and perform CPR on his daughter (which failed), while his wife bled to death.He moved to the United States of America some time after that for a fresh start, but evidence he suffered from both survivor's guilt and PTSD soon emerged, largely in terms of his personal relationships. Although initially reluctant to settle in one place, preferring to travel between Chicago and an unnamed southern city in his boat, a job offer from Kerry Weaver led him to take a permanent position at County General. This would be the first of several significant decisions Luka would make that were in part influenced by the relationships in his life.
First appearance
(Season 6, "Leave It to Weaver")
September 30, 1999
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