VT - NO doctor should be dismissing an episode like that as a panic attack without doing blood tests to rule out heart attack.

I have had both (the panic attacks decades ago, heart attack last year). What you've experienced sounds FAR more like a heart attack (though your symptoms were more extreme than mine). Panic is a normal side-effect - I was rather unusual in having no panic symptoms and a lot less pain than most.

A GP can order the relevant blood tests, but it'd be better to get it done at the A&E department where they can do ECGs at the same time. The blood tests say whether or not there was a heart attack, the ECGs locate where the damage occurred - if they come up positive, they are usually followed by an echocardiogram and an angiography.

The NHS and the British Heart Foundation have put a lot of resources into publicizing the symptoms of heart attack (which are exactly what you described). They are not doing this for laughs. They expect people to act on it. Even now, about half the people who get heart attacks will die within 24 hours. Left untreated, your chances of surviving a second one are much worse.

BHF: Heart Attack

BHF: women and heart disease