Heart Attack Symptoms: “What are the warning signs of an impending heart attack?” Survivors share what an oncoming heart attack felt like

For 65 year old Jan Marie Brown, who was in perfect health, having a heart attack at the age of 47 was a remote thought.

“I was a 47-year-old female in excellent health. Perfect blood pressure, no history of high cholesterol, always healthy. I woke up that day and felt like I had heartburn, something I just do not get. It was a pain in my esophagus just below my throat,” writes Jan on Quora.

“The best way I can describe the pain is it felt like someone was trying to force a coke bottle down my throat. Like the bottle was about to split my esophagus open. About two inches below the notch in my collar-bone. Really closer to my throat than to my chest and smack in the center,” she describes her symptom in a long post.

As she was waiting at the laboratory for a blood check up, writes Jan, she started sweating profusely. “I wasn’t hot, I was just sweating. I got out of the car, thinking the cool morning air would help, but when I stood up I felt very weak. A few minutes later it got hard to breathe. I couldn’t get a good breathe in. It suddenly dawned on my I was having a heart attack!, she writes.

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Jan had coronary spasm. “I’m 64 now, have not had any issues since. I do take a very low dose of a blood pressure medication to prevent another spasm, even though I have great blood pressure,” she writes.