Little did Joseph know, but he had been born with a bicuspid aortic valve - a minor heart defect that occurs often in the general population. While the condition had posed no apparent problems to him at any other time in his life, the congenital heart defect did make his heart vulnerable to infection.

“Joseph came to the hospital with a massive heart infection that ate away at his aortic valve,” said Dr. Charles D. Fraser Jr., chief of congenital heart surgery at Texas Children's Hospital. “During his open-heart surgery, we faced two problems: First, we had to control the voracious infection within his heart. Then, we had to replace the aortic valve. Joseph was extremely ill and was fighting for his life.”

Knowing that Joseph was an athlete, Dr. Fraser chose to use only donated tissue to repair the aortic valve.

“We can certainly use mechanical valves in these cases,” said Dr. Fraser. “But in young people, it limits their future activities because they must take blood thinners for the rest of their lives. Obviously, we wanted to save Joseph’s life, but we also wanted to give him the best shot at pursuing his passion of becoming a world-class cyclist.”

After a nine-hour operation and 42 days in the hospital on IV antibiotics, Joseph slowly began to resume a normal life. Like Lance Armstrong’s bout with cancer, Joseph faced a monumental health challenge, but with help from a Texas Children's surgeon, he was back training for the racing circuit and pursuing his passion.