CLEVELAND — February is American Heart Month. The focus is usually on adults, but even the tiniest of hearts need TLC, and there is groundbreaking surgery happening on babies in utero.

The Ghaib family's littlest girl turns two in March and she has a big story.

“We couldn't imagine after the first diagnosis that we would reach this point now,” said Dr. Doaa Saleh. “It is beyond amazing."

Amazing because when Doaa was 20 weeks pregnant with Nadine, she and Ali received devastating news: the ultrasound showed their baby girl had a life-threatening heart defect.

“We may lose her in the pregnancy or soon after the pregnancy,” she remembers doctors telling them. “It was devastating news for every mother.”

Even more devastating, their doctors in Dubai said there was nothing they could do. But Doaa would not be defeated.

A doctor herself, and superfan of "Grey's Anatomy", she remembered an episode where they performed surgery on a baby in utero.

“I could've never imagined that 'Grey's Anatomy' could literally change my baby's life,” she said. “That it could save it!

The couple did research and found only a few places in the world perform such a surgery, but there was a plot twist to this real-life script. The medical team they chose was 7,000 miles away in Cleveland, Ohio, and they had to get there as soon as possible.

They packed up their first child, a toddler, and flew the 22 hours from Dubai to Cleveland; a city they'd barely heard of, to entrust their unborn child's life in the hands of the Congenital Heart Collaborative at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

“The fact that they put that much trust in us, is humbling,” said Dr. James Strainic, a University Hospitals pediatric cardiologist and surgeon.

Photo courtesy of University Hospitals.

The procedure is called fetal pulmonary valvuloplasty. The medical team uses ultrasound to guide a needle through mom's abdomen and into the baby's tiny heart to open a valve that's stuck closed.

“And the way we do that is with a really small balloon,” said Strainic. “It's only about 3-4 mm in size. We blow up the balloon and it kind of rips open the door and we prevent something called hypoplastic right ventricle, or half-of-a-heart syndrome.”

University Hospitals.

Mom is awake during the procedure which can take hours, even days in Doaa’s case, for the baby to get into the exact right position.

There is a risk with the procedure.

Strainic says about 10% of the fetuses they do these procedures on die in utero.

“There are circumstances where we could do the procedure after the baby is born, and in fact we don't offer the procedure to people if we think that we would have a successful procedure after the baby is born,” said Strainic. “We reserve this only for the fetuses that we are pretty sure are going to develop that half-a-heart syndrome."

Doaa said it was an easy decision for them because of the great benefit they felt confident it would give their daughter.

“If there was any percentage that I can save my baby from everything they told us about, I will take it,” she said.

Nadine and Strainic got to meet for the first time several months after she was born.

Photo courtesy of University Hospitals.

“It is something, you get all the feels as they say,” recalled Strainic.

Today, Nadine is a happy, healthy and normal toddler.

“Whatever she wants to do, she will do it,” smiled dad, Ali.

“Yeah, I am the boss,” echoed Nadine.

This boss baby, whose name means hope, is now giving that to families around the world as the embodiment of the life-saving medical treatments happening in Cleveland.

“When we went back to Dubai and the doctors there saw the results of Nadine’s heart surgery and her amazing recovery, they saw her like a miracle baby,” said Doaa. “That's why they now tell the parents about the options they have."

Every year, one in 100 babies born in the United States has a congenital heart defect.

Strainic says it's important to share stories like Nadine’s, to raise awareness and funding for research. He is currently part of a team at Nationwide Children’s Hospital to develop a heart valve that can be put into a fetus and will grow with the child over time, preventing years of heart surgeries and transplants.

Before moving to Dubai, Doaa and Ali lived in Iraq, but left after the war. The family now lives in Montreal. Doaa is active on social media.

She uses the platform to raise awareness about Nadine’s journey as well as advocate for the rights of women and children around the world.

This story originally reported by Katie Ussin on News5Cleveland.com.

CHICAGO, Ill. — Cardiac pacemakers require wires to be implanted in the chest to help control the patient’s heartbeat. But now researchers have developed the first-ever wireless, battery-free pacing device that doesn’t have to be removed.

It’s an implantable electrical device that dissolves inside your body after it’s done with its work.

“One of the key features of this system is very thin, silica, nanomembrane. Actually, this is the only active part of this device,” said Yeonsik David Choi, lead developer of the device in the Rogers Research Group at Northwestern University and lead author of the study.

It may sound like science fiction but it’s turning into science fact.

“The idea here is to create sort of an alternative type of temporary pacemaker that doesn't require extraction. It’s purely wireless. There are no leads coming out of the chest,” said John Rogers, professor of material science and biomedical engineering at Northwestern University.

“The thickness is around 300 nanometers,” said Choi.

The razor-thin sliver of silicon could revolutionize the future of temporary pacemakers.

“It's built around what we refer to as transient electronic materials. These are materials that dissolve naturally when exposed to biofluids,” said Rogers.

The device itself would be attached to the heart at the tail end of surgery without needing an external box, batteries, or wires. Charging is achieved through a wireless inductive power transfer.

“Which is essentially how cell phones can be charged by the charging mats, where you can just place your phone onto the mat and power is transferred to power your phone,” explained Rose Yin, a George Washington researcher, and the study’s surgical coordinator.

The biodegradable materials, which include water-soluble silicon, magnesium, and wax, would dissolve over the course of 5-7 weeks.

Biomedical scientists at Northwestern and George Washington Universities have been investigating an alternative to traditional pacemakers for the better part of a decade.

“The current pace technology is not adequate. It's not optimal simply because these wires tend to get dislodged. They can get infected,” said Dr. Rishi Arora, a Northwestern professor of cardiology and co-author of the study.

He says this technology could eliminate the disadvantages of wired pacing and surgical extraction after the temporary pacemaker is no longer needed.

“We have nothing great right now to offer people that need it, that need more than a few days of temporary pacing support,” said Arora. “I think something like this could really help patients in the longer term.”

They’ve already successfully tested the device in small and large animals, and soon could be seeking approval for investigational testing in humans.

“You could also think of it as an electronic form of a medicine in the sense that it's a device that's present only when you need it,” said Rogers. “It's eventually expelled from the body, very much like a pharmaceutical, but it's a piece of engineered technology in electronic medicine.”

Researchers say it will likely be another two years before it’s approved for human testing. But it could be a major leap forward in a more non-invasive approach to keeping the heart ticking.