Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to Become 13th Certified Hospital to Implant CardioWest(TM) Temporary Total Artificial Heart (TAH-t).

TUCSON, Ariz. -- 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 20 and 21 at the University Medical Center Sarver Heart Center in Tucson, Ariz. 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(R): 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(R).

The CardioWest(TM) 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 New England Journal of Medicine paper published 8/26/04 shows that the one year survival rate for patients receiving the CardioWest(TM) TAH-t as a bridge to human heart transplant was 70% vs. 31% 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 nine to 28 hospitals worldwide 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."