Abstract: An atrial defibrillation system monitors activity of a heart, detects atrial fibrillation, and cardioverts detected atrial fibrillation. The system includes an implantable atrial defibrillator including a plurality of operating stages for monitoring heart activity, detecting atrial fibrillation, and cardioverting atrial fibrillation, a message generator for generating messages indicative of operating stage operation status, and a transmitter to transmit the messages indicative of operating stage operating status. A nonimplantable communication device is dimensioned to be hand-held and includes a receiver for receiving the transmitted messages indicative of operating stage operation status, an addressable memory for storing a plurality of voice signals, a decoder responsive to received messages indicative of operating stage operation status for addressing selected ones of the stored voice signals, and a converter for converting the selected voice signals to audible sound.