For James Antaki, a professor of biomedical engineering at Cornell University, the $6.7 million government grant means that babies will be preserved. Granted by the Department of Defense on March 30, his team will enable Cornell’s team to strengthen production and test PediaFlow, a device that can increase blood flow to babies with heart defects.

After a week, everything changed.

The Ministry of Defense issued a stop order to Antaki on April 8, informing him that his team would not be able to obtain the money, which was intended to be distributed within four years. Now that three decades of research are in danger, Antaki said he has no idea why the government is cutting funds.

“I feel like completing this project is the call of my life,” he said in his first news interview since losing money. “Once a week, I went through this mental process, ‘Is it time to give up?’ But giving up is not my privilege.”

Neither the Defense Department nor the White House Press responded to requests for comment.

Since President Donald Trump took office, Antaki is one of hundreds of scholars across the country, losing money in various fields, as new execution orders limit the funds that government funds can support and the order cancelled by the Elon Musk government’s government efficiency ministry order.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 100 babies in the United States are born with heart defects, and about one in four babies need surgery or other surgery to survive. Globally, it is estimated that 240,000 babies die within the first 28 days due to congenital birth defects.

The baby's heart is about the size of a large walnut. When a baby is born with a hole between the chambers of the heart, it can be a life-threatening condition. Antaki’s creation is an AA battery-sized device that uses a magnet’s rotating propeller to increase blood flow, helping them survive surgery or live with their family at home until needed (if needed).

Antaki's expected new round of funding will support further testing of the prototype, including placement in animals to ensure it does not harm humans, and the paperwork required to complete the FDA's regulatory process.

Antaki said over the years, the device has received several grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense without any problems.

Antaki started working on this technology in 2003. When the National Institutes of Health issued a call for the pediatric cardiac assistance system to make recommendations, he had developed similar technologies at the University of Pittsburgh.

He has tried without success to attract the interest of private companies in pediatric equipment. He speculated that they may have fallen because the market for children's medical equipment is smaller than that for adults.

After Antaki arrived at Cornell in 2018, he received research funding from the Department of Defense to keep the project moving forward. He said he submitted a 300-page proposal last June to submit the next cash injection he needed, and the Department of Defense notified his team in March that it had been approved before revoking the course in April.

A copy of the Frozen Order reviewed by NBC News does not specify reasons other than the government's cancellation of grants, which is "under the guidance of the government."

Dr. Evan Zahn, a pediatric interventional cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who is not involved in Pediaflow, said raising funds for children’s health care is backward because few commercially available solutions for babies with heart defects.

"There is an urgent need for technology designed specifically for our children, especially for comprehensive babies, so losing money for something like that is a real loss," Zahn said.

Antaki said he and his team will need to start awarding lab staff and doctoral degrees if there is no recovery fund within 90 days. Students will have to change their research priorities.

In the grand scheme of government funding, he said: "A small amount of money can do well for so many people, and that's the right thing to do. It's just talking to oneself."