New York, Nov 22 (IANS): A doctor has been hailed for saving an elderly man's life by sucking urine from his bladder during mid-flight.

When the aircraft was about six hours away from its destination, the elderly man suddenly suffered dysuria, a painful condition characterised by difficult and painful urination, reports the The Mirror.

Zhang Hong, Vascular Surgeon from China, was on board a China Southern Airlines flight from Guangzhou to New York this week.

The cabin crew was alerted about the passenger who was in need of medical assistance.

When the crew checked on the passenger he was not being able to urinate.

Dr Zhang stepped in, and found that the man's bladder was filled with about one litre of urine as he was unable to urinate, The Mirror reported.

The urine had to be released quickly to prevent his bladder from rupturing.

To save passenger's life, the doctor prepared equipment from the material available onboard, including a portable oxygen mask, a syringe needle, a bottled milk straw and tape.

Zhang then tried to use the syringe to extract the urine, however, it didn't work. The doctor finally decided to suck the urine out using his mouth.

He used a catheter and sucked 800ml of urine during in the next 37 minutes, according to the The Mirror.

The urine was filled into bottles by the cabin crew to know how much urine had been taken out and get a better idea of the patient's condition.

Zhang's quick-thinking saved the elderly man's life. The patient was taken to a hospital after the aeroplane landed.