Germany : BIOTRONIK SE Co. & KG, a leading manufacturer of implantable cardiac devices, has announced an important achievement in their partnership with Heartbeat International Foundation (HBI): the implantation of a donated cardiac device to save the life of Yuleisy Daniela Banos Peraldo, a seven-year old girl from Ecuador.

Seven year old Yuleisy - the first patient saved as a result of the collaboration between BIOTRONIK and Heartbeat International Foundation.

The implantation was performed after a replacement mitral valve procedure at the children’s hospital Baca Ortiz by Dr. Gerardo Davalos of “Fundacion Banco de Marcapasos“. The young patient has nicely recovered from the procedure and has been able to return home with her family.

“Without the cardiac device from BIOTRONIK, sweet little Yuleisy would not have been able to live her life the way a child should, with freedom, fun, fearlessness and joy. Her condition would have continued to deteriorate significantly until her life was compromised,” said Dr. Attilio Birga, Chairman of Heartbeat International Ecuador. “Thanks to the collaboration with companies like BIOTRONIK to provide free life-saving therapies to heart patients in need, others like Yuleisy are given new hope for a healthy life and a future of possibilities.”

There are one million – and possibly as many as three million – people each year that will die because they cannot afford to get a cardiac device. HBI, a charitable, non-profit organization based in the United States, and BIOTRONIK have partnered together to start bringing those numbers down. BIOTRONIK donates devices to HBI who then conducts the planning and oversees the network that gets the devices to the physicians who can perform the implantation procedures.

“HBI’s commitment to saving lives in developing countries goes hand in hand with BIOTRONIK’s determination to ensure patients in need have access to quality life-saving cardiac devices regardless of economic or social status,” said Marlou Janssen, Global Vice President of Marketing and Sales at BIOTRONIK. “We are proud to be a part of HBI’s team and we intend to continue to support the foundation’s admirable efforts by aiming toward a goal of helping over a thousand needy heart patients with BIOTRONIK devices within the next 3 years”.