Doctor insists sucking of urine no 'show'

Xiao made a makeshift urine draining device using a tube from an oxygen mask, a syringe needle, a straw and tape, but the urine did not automatically flow out via the improvised catheter because there was not enough of a pressure difference.

"There was not much time to use a big needle tube to siphon out the urine. In such an emergency, as a professional doctor, I had to siphon out the urine (by mouth)," Zhang said. Zhang repeatedly sucked out mouthfuls of urine over half an hour, spitting them into a cup.

With the urine drained bit by bit, the passenger gradually recovered. When the plane arrived in New York, the man disembarked safely with his wife.

Zhang, currently in New York for an international medical forum, will be honored and awarded for his "moral act" by his hospital, and his actions will be promoted, the hospital's publicity department said on Friday.

Meanwhile, Xiao, from Hainan General Hospital in Haikou, Hainan province, will be awarded 100,000 yuan ($14,200) for helping to save the patient, according to a report by news website The-Paper.cn.

"Xiao is a skilled, intelligent and courageous doctor in the style of famed Canadian physician Norman Bethune," it quoted Zhao Jiannong, Party chief of the Hainan hospital, as saying.