OPINION Hunched over my dining table and gasping for air, feeling as though an invisible person was squeezing my chest while I tried to breathe through a straw, I somehow didn’t realise I was having an asthma attack. At 31 years old I was operating under the mistaken belief that, having never had an asthma attack before, I would never get one. I was diagnosed with asthma as a child, but up until this moment I had thought it didn’t affect my life at all.
I apparently wasn’t the only one who was thinking along the same lines. The paramedic I spoke to on the phone after calling 111 told me he didn’t think I was having an asthma attack, as I didn’t have a history of asthma attacks. He said an ambulance could be anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour away, and I might consider finding my own way to the hospital if I didn’t want to wait.
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