Patent ID: 7313436

Claim:
An implantable medical device, comprising: a plurality of electrodes sensing cardiac signals within a plurality of chambers of a heart; and control circuitry determining cardiac events in response to the sensed cardiac signals, and delivering a therapy via selected ones of the plurality of electrodes for a first determined cardiac event in response to presence of a second cardiac event, wherein the control circuitry determines, in response to the sensed cardiac signals corresponding to the second cardiac event, whether the second cardiac event is either one of a sustained cardiac event and a recent-onset cardiac event, and selects one of a first shock therapy comprising a defibrillation configuration delivered for simultaneously treating the first cardiac event and the second cardiac event in response to the second cardiac event being a recent-onset cardiac event and a second shock therapy comprising a defibrillation configuration delivered for treating only the first cardiac event and not the second cardiac event in response to the second cardiac event being a sustained cardiac event.