Hani Najm

Hani Najm is a Saudi surgeon and the Head of the Department of Pediatric and Adult Congenital Cardiac Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, United States of America. He has participated in performing approximately ten thousand surgical operations for newborns, children, and adults with heart diseases, including complex and critical cases.

Hani Najm was born in Riyadh City and attended al-Asima Model Institute. He obtained his bachelor's degree in medicine from King Saud University in Riyadh. After graduation, he worked as a teaching assistant at the same university and enrolled in local training in general surgery at King Saud University. In 1989, he was sent on a scholarship to Canada, where he stayed for about nine years. During that time, he obtained the Canadian Fellowship in General Surgery and the Canadian Fellowship in Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery. He also earned a master's in Cardiovascular Sciences Research from the University of Toronto.

Hani Najm participated in taekwondo and was the national champion in the 1980s. He competed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia championship and won the gold medal for three consecutive years in 1984, 1985, and 1986. He also represented the Kingdom in the World Championship held in Asia. After obtaining the black belt "Dan 3," he qualified to become an international taekwondo referee. He was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Taekwondo and Judo Federation until his move to work in the United States.

After returning from his training in Canada, Hani Najm began working at the Saudi Heart Association and was elected as its president. He worked at the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh for sixteen years before moving to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA.

He innovated the design and development of a flexible, growth-capable heart valve inside a child's body that adapts to the child's growth over the years. This innovation spares infants and children from the difficulties and risks of successive surgical operations. In 2021, he performed a rare surgery that American media dubbed the "miracle operation," which involved removing a tumor from the heart of a fetus inside its mother's womb.

Hani Najm was awarded the King Abdulaziz Medal of the First Class during the reign of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in recognition of his contributions to several surgeries, including the separation of conjoined twins. In 2023, he won the Arab Genius Award in the medicine field in the United Arab Emirates, appreciating his contributions to pediatric and adult cardiac surgery and his surgical innovations in treating congenital heart diseases.