Joey Powling was diagnosed with a serious heart condition while in his mother's womb. It's a rare congenital heart defect, known as Tetralogy of Fallot, according to the doctors.
The three-month old survived a major open-heart surgery to correct the problem.
"The long term risk of arrhythmias is lower, and the function of the heart is much better if the repair is done earlier," said Dr. Christopher Snyder, chief of pediatric cardiology at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland.
Powling is now famously known as "Ridiculously Good-Looking Surgery Baby" with a beautiful smirk on his face and with a five-inch scar left on his chest after the surgery.
"It felt like forever," said Joe Powling about the seven-hour surgery. "You have no control over the situation. There's really nothing you can do."
Joey's mom, Sarah, told "Today's" Matt Lauer about her son's condition.
"He was actually doing pretty well when he was born," she said. "So usually if babies are doing well when they're born they like to wait until 3 months when they are the right weight and everything."
The National Institute of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute call this a very rare condition while five out of 10,000 babies are born with Tetralogy of Fallot. If not fixed at an early age, due to lack of oxygen supply to the lungs most will die as young as 20.
Dr. Snyder said Joey's had been the first heart defect that they were actually able to fix.
"There is no simple cardiovascular surgery, but this repair's been going on for a long time," he said.
The scar on Joey's chest will look smaller as he ages.
"The scar is very long in proportion to his body," Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC's chief medical editor said. "But because the surgery was done very early in life and the cells will divide so quickly that scar is not going to look like much when he is a young hunk."
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