Your Questions About Suspected Heart Attack, Answered

Blockage of a coronary artery, cutting blood supply to part of the heart.

Key takeaways

• Call 999 if pain lasts: more than 15 minutes, or is severe
• Typical description: pressure, tightness, heaviness or squeezing
• Most useful single change: Call 999 rather than arranging your own transport.
• Commonest mistake: Driving yourself or being driven.
• See a doctor if any of the signs under "When to speak to a doctor" below apply to you.

What is Suspected Heart Attack?

Blockage of a coronary artery, cutting blood supply to part of the heart.

Why does it matter?

Muscle dies while you decide, and atypical presentation is a major cause of delay in women, older adults and people with diabetes.

Call 999 if pain lasts for Suspected Heart Attack?

More than 15 minutes, or is severe.

Typical description for Suspected Heart Attack?

Pressure, tightness, heaviness or squeezing.

What is the single most useful thing to do?

Call 999 rather than arranging your own transport.

What is the most common mistake?

Driving yourself or being driven.

When should I see a doctor?

Call 999 immediately for chest pain or tightness lasting more than a few minutes, pain spreading to the arm, neck or jaw, chest pain with sweating, nausea or breathlessness, or sudden severe tearing pain radiating to the back.

Where to go next

• Suspected Heart Attack: Separating Myth From Guidance
• New to Suspected Heart Attack? Start Here
• Suspected Heart Attack — the reference entry
• Sepsis: What the Evidence Actually Says
• The Evidence on Burns and Scalds, Without the Hype

When to speak to a doctor

Call 999 immediately for chest pain or tightness lasting more than a few minutes, pain spreading to the arm, neck or jaw, chest pain with sweating, nausea or breathlessness, or sudden severe tearing pain radiating to the back.

Where this comes from

• British Heart Foundation — heart attack symptoms
• NICE — Chest pain of recent onset

How this page was put together

Every figure, recommendation and warning above is taken from the guidance named in Where this comes from. Nothing on this page is inferred, summarised or generalised beyond what those bodies publish: where they give a number, it is their number, and where they are silent, so are we. Pages are rebuilt whenever the underlying record changes. Sign-off by a named clinician, where it has happened, is shown at the top of the page along with the date.

Medical disclaimer

This article is general information, not medical advice. It cannot account for your own history, medication or circumstances. Always speak to a GP, pharmacist or another qualified health professional before making changes that affect your treatment, and never delay seeking medical advice because of something you have read here. In an emergency, call 999.