An eerie silence fell over Nuevo Mirandilla, the home ground of Spanish side Cadiz, when their goalkeeper Jeremias Ledesma was seen sprinting across the pitch with a defibrillator in his hand.

The 29-year-old Argentinian's side were two goals behind La Liga behemoth Barcelona at that particular time with Frenkie de Jong and Robert Lewandowski getting on the scoresheet, but the football match on Saturday night was the last thing on his mind.

Ledesma was alerted to an incident behind the home side's goal, where a supporter suffered a cardiac arrest. The referee duly stopped the game in the 83rd minute and Ledesma promptly rushed over from the touchline to deliver the aforementioned defibrillator to the stands.

To make matter worse, a cameraman also fainted as the fan was receiving medical treatment. Cadiz midfielder Jose Maria was then seen carrying a stretcher and running towards the south stand of the stadium. The severity of the incident was for all to see with Cadiz defender Fali and his Barcelona counterpart Ronald Araujo starting to pray on the pitch.

After a delay of about 15 minutes, the referee ordered the players off the field. "We all agreed to stop [the game]," said Barca manager Xavi Hernandez. "This sort of thing goes beyond football, we're talking about a human life here."

Following a discussion between the clubs and La Liga that lasted more than half an hour, the players eventually reemerged to finish the final few minutes of the game. Barca would go on to add two more late goals via Ansu Fati and Ousmane Dembele.

The 4-0 win means they climbed top of La Liga and Xavi remains unbeaten on the road after 17 games since taking over as Barca boss, which equals Zinedine Zidane’s run after he took the helm at Real Madrid in 2016.

However, the statistics were irrelevant when weighed against the health of the supporter.

Fortunately, there was a positive ending to the story.

"The resuscitation attempt was successful and the fan was transferred to the ICU of the Puerta del Mar Hospital, where he remains hospitalized," Cadiz said in a statement. "In addition, one of the cameraman fainted at the same time. He was also quickly treated by the stadium's medical staff without major consequences.

"Cadiz would like to thank the exemplary behavior of the fans during this situation, as well as the members of medical and security teams for their prompt action so that the incident had a happy ending."

Cadiz's president Manuel Vizcaino later revealed that the fan was in a stable condition. "He was reviving and falling again, but in the end they managed to stabilize him," he told a Spanish radio station.

"Football is for people to enjoy themselves. It is a privilege to have the supporters we have, they were an example of humanity during what happened," Cadiz coach Sergio Gonzalez added in the press conference.

The sentiment was echoed by Xavi. "Luckily they were able to revive the person and they are healthy and safe," he said. "We felt, both teams, that it was right to restart the game. We hope the supporter recovers quickly."