Press Release:

TUCSON, Ariz. – March 17, 2006 – Renowned cardiac surgeon, Walter Pae, M.D., and seven members of his heart transplant team from Penn State. Hershey Medical Center will become the 13th team in the world to receive TAH-t Certification training. The first part of the three-phase training program will be conducted on March 20Th and 21st at the University Medical Center Sarver Heart Center in Tucson, Arizona. Instructors include Marvin Slepian, M.D., Richard Smith MSEE, CCE and noted heart surgeon Jack Copeland, M.D.

Penn State Heart & Vascular Institute ranks as one of the top 100 cardiovascular hospitals in America, according to Solucient 100 Top Hospitals®: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success. The institute’s cardiac and vascular experts have been identified as being among, “the best in the nation,” by America’s Top Doctors Consumer Health Guide and Best Doctors in America®.

The CardioWest™ TAH-t is the only FDA, Health Canada and CE approved Artificial Heart. The TAH-t is capable of providing circulatory restoration in morbidly ill patients with irreversible biventricular failure, bridging them to transplantation when a donor heart becomes available. The TAH-t’s superior blood pumping ability, up to 9.5 liters per minute, helps to rejuvenate vital organs that have atrophied because of a failing heart. A paper published in August 2004 in the New England Journal of Medicine states that, in the pivotal clinical trial, the one year survival rate for patients receiving the TAH-t as a bridge to human heart transplant was 70 percent versus 31 percent for control patients.

Phases two and three of the CardioWest TAH-t training program are conducted at the hospital being certified. The second phase is devoted to ensuring that the hospital and its transplant team are “implant ready”.

The third phase involves proctored surgical training by Dr. Copeland or another TAH-t veteran surgeon. The surgeon travels to the hospital being certified to monitor the first TAH-t implant. All TAH-t certified hospitals have years, and often decades, of experience in human heart transplantation.

This January, during its annual share holders meeting, SynCardia projected that TAH-t certified centers will increase from 9 to 28 hospitals world wide in 2006. According to Rodger Ford, SynCardia’s President and CEO, “This growth will convert the company from a scientific venture into a profitable life-saving business.”

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About the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart
SynCardia Systems, Inc. (Tucson, AZ) is the privately-held manufacturer of the world's first and only FDA, Health Canada and CE approved Total Artificial Heart. Originally used as a permanent replacement heart, SynCardia's Total Artificial Heart is currently approved as a bridge to transplant for people dying from end-stage biventricular heart failure. There have been more than 1,000 implants of the Total Artificial Heart, accounting for more than 250 patient years of life.

Similar to a heart transplant, SynCardia's Total Artificial Heart replaces both failing heart ventricles and the four heart valves, eliminating the symptoms and source of end-stage biventricular failure. Unlike a donor heart, the Total Artificial Heart is immediately available at SynCardia Certified Centers and does not require expensive anti-rejection medication, which can cause subsequent complications. It is the only device that provides immediate, safe blood flow of up to 9.5 liters per minute through both ventricles. This high volume of safe blood flow helps speed the recovery of vital organs, helping make the patient a better transplant candidate.

SynCardia Ranked #20 Among World's 50 Most Innovative Companies
In March 2011, Fast Company magazine ranked SynCardia #20 in its annual list of the "World's 50 Most Innovative Companies" for "giving mobility to artificial heart recipients." Weighing 13.5 pounds, SynCardia's Freedom® portable driver is the world's first wearable driver designed to power the Total Artificial Heart both inside and outside the hospital. The Freedom driver is CE approved for use in Europe and undergoing an FDA-approved Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) clinical study in the U.S.

For additional information, please visit: http://www.syncardia.com
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Media Contact:
Don Isaacs
Vice President of Communications
SynCardia Systems, Inc.
Cell: (520) 955-0660