I am female, over 50, and experienced excrciating pain in my chest - left side - that peiced through and out the back of hte shoulder . I was severly nauseated, and it was like my throat was paralyzed. I absolutely could not swallow when I tried, and found breathing difficult. The pain lasted about 5 minutes, and about 5 minutes or less after that I developed a cough that sounded like I had Bronchitis . Approximately 15 mintues after that episode, it happend again. Samy symptoms. I felt shaky after both incidents. I have low blood pressure 80/60 on a good day and do suffer the esophagal muiscle spasms -- and this was nothing like them. They hurt a lot, but I can still swallow. I am assuming it must be a new variation on the exophagal muscle spasm, but the women in my family die young (50 5 and 60 s many of them) and there is a familty history of heart attacks. I cannot see that I could have such a thing happen when there have been no indicators, but am curious.