If you think you're having a heart attack, call 9-1-1 or your emergency medical system immediately.

The key to surviving a heart attack is promptly recognizing the warning signals and getting immediate medical attention.

If you feel an uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing or pain in the center of your chest (that may spread to your shoulders, neck or arms) and your discomfort lasts for two minutes or longer, you could be having a heart attack.

Sweating, dizziness, fainting, nausea, a feeling of severe indigestion, or shortness of breath may also occur, although not all symptoms do necessarily occur.

When a person has these symptoms, it is natural for him or her to deny what is happening. No one wants to think that he might be having a heart attack. It is important to know that over 300,000 heart attack victims died before reaching the hospital last year, many of them because they refused to take their symptoms seriously.

What should you do if you think you might be having a heart attack?
Call your local emergency medical service (EMS) immediately. If the EMS isn't available, get to the hospital Emergency Room as soon as possible.

There is evidence that taking aspirin very early in the course of a heart attack may help reduce its severity.