One Obstacle at a Time: John Carter on His Son Cannon, a Congenital Heart Defect, and What Thirty Days in a Cardiac ICU Taught a Healthcare Insider About Being a Patient

John Carter has spent sixteen years in healthcare working with health systems, physicians, and executives all over the country. He knows how the system works. He knows which levers to pull. He knows the language.

None of it prepared him for the moment a cardiologist walked into a NICU room and a grenade went off.

In this episode of *The Bridges Between Us*, John shares the full story of his son Cannon. Born July 5th, named for the cannon his father fired as an Army field artillery officer, wild and unyielding by name and by nature. Diagnosed in utero with a coarctation of the aorta and tricuspid valve concerns, Cannon arrived at nine pounds, briefly fooled every monitor in the NICU into thinking he might be fine, and then wasn't. Thirty days in the cardiac ICU followed including a crash after surgery, a reintubation, an infection, and two moments where John and his wife Vanessa almost lost him.

John talks about what it's like to know the system intimately and still feel powerless inside it. About the difference between a care team's mission and a father's. About "hopium," the discipline of focusing only on the next obstacle, never the finish line. And about CaringBridge, which became the one tool that let him protect his family's energy, communicate with their tribe, and process thirty days of fear one journal entry at a time.

Cannon just turned three. He's been cleared to annual cardiology checkups. He smiles with his whole face.

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