MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY — A New Jersey Transit police officer underwent a six-hour Ross procedure at Atlantic Health Morristown Medical Center to correct a bicuspid aortic valve. Paul DeGeorge, who works with the Special Operations Division for New Jersey Transit, has returned to full duty following the operation.

DeGeorge felt pressure on his chest in the middle of the night and drove himself to the emergency room at Atlantic Health Morristown Medical Center. A cardiologist diagnosed an issue with his aortic valve. Doctors performed a battery of tests and determined that DeGeorge had a bicuspid aortic valve, meaning his aortic valve had two leaflets instead of three.

DeGeorge required major open-heart surgery to treat his condition. Approximately one and a half weeks after his diagnosis, he underwent the Ross procedure at the medical center. The procedure replaces a patient's defective aortic valve with their pulmonary valve and then uses a donor valve to replace the original pulmonary valve.

"When someone comes in and they have chest tightness and chest pressure, that's an end-stage symptom," said Dr. Benjamin van Boxtel, Surgical Director at the Atlantic Aortic Center. He described the procedure: "The procedure is like 'musical chairs of the heart' and is 'crazy even to heart surgeons'."

The surgery presented additional challenges because DeGeorge had antibodies in his blood that required the surgical team to closely monitor medications, temperature, and other variables during the procedure. The surgical team encountered no complications during the six-hour operation.

"I'd be lying if I told you I slept much the night before," DeGeorge said about the night before his surgery.

Hours after the operation, DeGeorge was able to sit up in bed. Within a few days after surgery, he was walking. The Ross procedure allows patients to live normally without the need for additional open-heart surgeries.

After his surgery, DeGeorge resumed coaching sports and practicing jiujitsu. He was honored at a New York Jets game. DeGeorge will have regular cardiologist appointments and routine heart scans.

"I was very fortunate. This story could be very different. I couldn't be happier to be where I am now," DeGeorge said.

DeGeorge had no family history of heart disease. Bicuspid aortic valve is a congenital condition in which the aortic valve has two leaflets and can lead to abnormal blood flow or risk of aortic dissection.