-- A Growing Network of SynCardia Certified Centers Give End-Stage Heart Failure Patients A 2nd Chance at Life

TUCSON, Arizona, Feb. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Hospital in Ankara recently implanted Turkey's 24th and 25th SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Hearts as a bridge to transplant to donor human hearts.

One of the patients was discharged Jan. 31, 2014, less than six weeks following his Dec. 23, 2013 implant of the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart. He was able to leave the hospital because of the Freedom® portable driver, a 6-kilo wearable power supply that greatly increases patients' mobility and allows patients to exercise, eat and sleep at home and enjoy their community. This helps patients get stronger for their heart transplants.

"This patient was very sick with ischemic cardiomyopathy," says surgeon Dr. Umit Kervan, who performed the operation with surgeon Dr. Mustafa Pac. "The SynCardia Total Artificial Heart saved his life and the Freedom portable driver gives him almost unlimited mobility so he can exercise and get stronger for his second chance at life following his heart transplant."

As the Turkish distributor for the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart, Ufuk Yaranli, President and CEO of Natura Medikal Urunler Ltd., actively identifies and recruits the country's most talented cardiac surgeons and medical centers to become SynCardia Certified Centers.

"We have been fortunate that Turkey's best medical centers are implanting the Total Artificial Heart, which is the only device that eliminates the source and symptoms of end-stage biventricular heart failure," Mr. Yaranli says. "The SynCardia Heart has become the standard of care for this deadly heart disease.

"I'm also thankful to our well-trained Natura Clinical Support Team that does a great job in supporting patients throughout the implant process."

Like a human heart transplant, the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart replaces both failing heart ventricles and the four heart valves. The electronics that operate the SynCardia Heart are safely located outside of the body in the Freedom portable driver, which powers the SynCardia Heart with precisely calibrated pulses of air and vacuum.

Ege University in Izmir performed the first SynCardia Heart implant in Turkey on Sept. 30, 2010. Today there are nine SynCardia hospitals in Turkey, part of the network of 94 SynCardia Centers worldwide with an additional 37 heart hospitals in the process of certification.

The most recent SynCardia implant at Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Hospital was performed on Jan. 13, 2014. Other Turkish SynCardia Heart patients include

• a man who has been on the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart for nearly three-and-a-half years,
• 17-year-old Yusuf Enec, and
• a 57-year-old former professional soccer player.

SynCardia recognizes and thanks Ufuk Yaranli and Natura Medikal Urunler Ltd., the Turkish distributor for the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart, for their commitment and on-going support of Turkish heart hospitals.

See/download HD photo of Dr. Umit Kervan, associate professor at Turkiye Yusek Ihstisas Hospital, with Turkey's 25th SynCardia Total Artificial Heart implant patient Sefa Yilmaz, and 24th implant patient, Yilmaz Cekic, whose SynCardia Heart is powered by the 6 kilo Freedom portable driver.

CAUTION – The Freedom portable driver is an investigational device, limited by United States law to investigational use.

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. http://www.syncardia.com/

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SOURCE SynCardia Systems, Inc.