Urgent symptoms
Find information about urgent health issues and when to phone 999.
Sudden severe pain
If you have sudden severe pain in your head, chest, abdomen, or in a limb, dial 999. These are symptoms that something may be seriously wrong.
Heart attack
You may be having a heart attack if you experience:
- pain - in your chest, and arms (usually the left arm is affected, but it can affect both arms), jaw, neck, back or abdomen
- feeling lightheaded or dizzy
- sweating
- shortness of breath
- feeling or being sick
- an overwhelming sense of anxiety
- coughing or wheezing.
Some people may have minor or even no chest pain.
If these are your symptoms and you don't have angina, please dial 999. If you are not allergic to aspirin, and have an aspirin handy, chew on it while you are waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
If you have angina, you may have glyceryl trinitrate medication (GTN) that improves your symptoms within five minutes. If the first dose doesn't work, a second dose can be taken after five minutes and a third dose after a further five minutes. If the pain persists, despite taking three doses of GTN over 15 minutes, phone 999 and ask for an ambulance.
Stroke
Most people who have a stroke are aged 70 and over. The faster people with a stroke get treatment, the better the outcome.
The main symptoms of stroke are spelled out by the acronym FAST: Face-Arms-Speech-Time.
- Face - has your face dropped on one side? Has your mouth or eye dropped? Are you unable to smile?
- Arms - are you unable to lift both arms and keep them there?
- Speech - is your speech slurred or garbled?
- Time - dial 999 immediately if you notice any of these signs or symptoms.
‘Mini-stroke’ or transient ischaemic attack (TIA)
Having these symptoms for only a few minutes before they disappear means
you have had a mini-stroke or TIA. Please don't ignore this - it is the sign of a problem with the blood supply to your brain. It shows you are at increased risk of a stroke in the near future.
If you think you are having a TIA, phone 999 and ask for an ambulance. Even if the symptoms disappear, you should still get checked out in hospital.