Heart attack vs panic attack

[GeorgeKaplan]

I am writing a novel in which my protagonist has a panic attack but thinks she's having a heart attack. What would an EMT do, step-by-step, in the mid-1990s on such a call. I want to get this right but don't need all the tiny details. A few would be good, though.

She is a 46-year-old middleclass married white woman living in suburban North Jersey. She's the mother of two with no known health conditions at the time other than poor eyesight. Although an older mother (36 at birth of first child, 39 for second), she had no complications. Her father had serious heart conditions for the last 20 years of his life. He died in the early 1980s.

Thank you for your help.

 

[STXmedic]

Have her slow down her breefing until the pain in her shess goes away. Then tell Carlito to stop interrupting her novelas.

 

[Doczilla]

In the 90's? Let's see:

One partner would be shoving a paper lunch sack over her face, while the other is trying to put a NRB on. Then they would have jammed some indracardiac epi in, slammed 4mg of narcan as a diagnostic tool, then finished off with some calcium chloride, given down their nasally-intubated ET tube of course.

Then they would have put her on their aluminum ferno stretcher (that has 100 pinch points), lifted with their backs, and gone lights and sirens to the hospitals while adjusting their perms.

 

[Onceamedic]

Hey... that's still our protocol.....