Doctor saves man's life mid-flight by sucking urine out of his bladder

A courageous doctor rescued an elderly passenger from severe abdominal pain and possible complications mid-flight by sucking 800ml urine from his bladder, according to a media report on Friday.

The China Southern Airways flight CZ3009, which left Guangzhou, southeast China on Tuesday, was six hours away from New York when an elderly passenger cried for help, the New York Post reported. The cabin crew found the man perspiring, indicating pain in his abdomen.

Dr. Zhang Hong, the head of vascular surgery at Jinan University's First Affiliated Hospital, who was on-board, offered to help. Hong said the man's relatives told him about the victim suffering from repeated incidents of prostate enlargement, which helped zero-in on the problem.

"When I saw that the man could hardly bear the pain anymore, my only thought was how to get the urine out of his bladder," Hong told the Post. Hong saved the man's life by spending 37 minutes sucking urine from the man's blocked bladder with nothing but a plastic tube and an empty wine bottle, the daily said.

"He was going into shock and may have suffered a risk to his life if we didn't tend to him urgently," Hong said.