Heroic doctor saves an elderly air passenger who is unable to pass urine due to an acute condition by sucking waste liquid from his body with his MOUTH
- Dr Zhang Hong, 55, spent 37 minutes extracting 800 millilitres of liquid waste
- The sick passenger, 70, suddenly had trouble urinating and was in great agony
- They were on a China Southern Airlines’ plane from Guangzhou to New York
- The self-less medic said: ‘Saving people is the fundamental duty of a doctor’
A Chinese doctor has saved an elderly passenger who was unable to pass urine due to an acute condition by sucking the man’s urine with his mouth.
Dr Zhang Hong, 55, spent nearly 40 minutes extracting 800 millilitres of waste from the passenger, 70, using this method after failing to release the liquid with a makeshift medical device made from oxygen masks, a first-aid needle and plastic straws.
‘Saving people is the fundamental duty of a doctor,’ the medical worker said after the incident.
A video released by China Southern Airlines shows Dr Zhang Hong squatting down while sucking urine from the sick passenger via a tube on a plane from Guangzhou to New York
The incident took place this week on a 14-hour, trans-Pacific flight from China to the United States.
The pair were on China Southern Airlines’ flight CZ399 from Guangzhou to New York on Tuesday when the unidentified pensioner suddenly had trouble emptying his bladder.
The carrier has explained the event in detail in a social media article.
According to the post, the pensioner sought help from the cabin crew about eight hours into the journey.
Flight attendants then started looking for medical professionals on board for advice while planning for emergency landing.
Dr Zhang, a vascular surgeon at The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, volunteered to assist.
Another doctor Xiao Zhanxiang, who works at the People’s Hospital of Hainan Province, also happened to be on the plane and rushed over to check on the situation.
The 55-year-old vascular surgeon said: ‘Saving people is the fundamental duty of a doctor’
Dr Zhang said the patient was in great agony when he saw him. His abdomen was bulging due to the trapped urine and he could not stop sweating.
The man could go into a state of shock at any point without emergency treatment, Dr Zhang pointed out.
The two medics asked the pensioner’s family members about his health situation and were informed that the pensioner suffered from prostate enlargement, which they thought caused acute urinary retention in him.
The pair were on China Southern Airlines’ flight CZ399 from Guangzhou to New York on Tuesday when the pensioner suddenly had trouble emptying his bladder (file photo)
Dr Xiao and Dr Zhang built a temporary medical tool using oxygen masks, a first-aid needle and plastic straws in a bid to draw urine from the man.
The method failed due to lack of air pressure and space.
Seeing this, Dr Zhang immediately asked one flight attendant to give him a cup before putting a plastic tube into his mouth to suck the waste liquid.
Footage released by the airline company shows the surgeon repeatedly sucking the tube and then spitting urine into the cup.
At the same time, Dr Xiao adjusted the position of a needle inserted into the man’s bladder to ensure a smooth flow of the urine.
The patient’s condition improved after 37 minutes and he was arranged to lie on the last row of the cabin for the remaining five hours of the flight.
The cabin crew also assisted the patient to seek further medical attention after the aircraft landed in John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Mr Zhang remained modest while being asked about his heroic act.
He said: ‘We really did not have any other solutions at the time, [and I] did not think that much. [I] just wanted to help him release the urine stuck in his bladder.’
The man added: ‘Saving people is the fundamental duty of a doctor.’