The fan who required medical assistance during Newcastle United’s Premier League match against Tottenham is awake and responsive in hospital.
Sunday’s game at St James’ Park came to a halt in the 40th minute, with Spurs leading 2-1, after referee Andre Marriner was alerted to the incident by players and supporters.
Tottenham defender Eric Dier ran to the touchline and urged medical staff to attend with a defibrillator.
Both sets of players walked to the sidelines as emergency crews attended the person in the East Stand.
An eyewitness has told Sky Sports News that a female Newcastle fan went to the aid of the ill supporter in the stand and gave him CPR.
A member of the Newcastle medical team brings a defibrillator to the fan
Sergio Reguillon speaks to referee Andre Marriner
Newcastle and Tottenham players wait for the match to be restarted
After consulting police, the referee took the players off the field with play having been suspended for around six minutes.
Some 12 minutes after the game had stopped, an announcement was made that the teams would be returning to complete the first half, for which seven minutes of stoppage time had earlier been signalled.
Newcastle confirmed that the person had been stabilised and was on the way to hospital as the players reemerged to warm up.
After the resumption in play, Tottenham increased their lead in first-half added time through Heung-Min Son.
The match finished in a 3-2 win for Spurs.
Dier and fellow Spurs teammate Sergio Reguilon were named joint men of the match for their part in quickly alerting the match official and medical staff to the severity of the incident.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Tottenham left-back Reguilon said: “I saw the fan lying down, and one man [giving him CPR], I was very nervous, I went to the referee and said we cannot play, stop the match. The fans say: ‘Stop, stop!'”
Tottenham’s Harry Kane added: “First and foremost, we want to say best wishes to the guy in the stands. It wasn’t a good sight to see, and we hear he might be stable now, so we’re thankful to the medical team and the fans. Hopefully he is OK, and we wish him all the best from Spurs and the players.”
Ginola recalls role CPR played in his recovery from cardiac arrest
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After Newcastle’s match with Tottenham was temporarily suspended due to a fan being taken ill in the stands, David Ginola reflects on the cardiac arrest he suffered in 2016 and explains the importance of CPR and defibrillators in saving lives
Former Newcastle midfielder David Ginola had a quadruple heart bypass after suffering cardiac arrest during a charity match in France in 2016 and was a Sky Sports pundit at St James’ Park on Sunday.
Ginola was given CPR on the pitch at the time and spoke of its importance in enabling someone of having a better chance of a full recovery.
“This is what saved my life – those were the words of the surgeons that operated on me,” he said.
“The one who saved my life were the ones on the football pitch who knew how to perform CPR. They did it for 12 minutes and I was dead for 12 minutes. It is so important as otherwise the brain will be damaged.
“Sometimes [when doing CPR] people don’t want to hurt you too much but you need to go deep and break ribs. When you learn how to do it, you are going very strong on the body. This is the key. It’s vital.”
