Doctor insists sucking of urine no 'show'

A doctor who used a tube and his mouth to relieve an elderly airline passenger's inability to urinate on a flight to New York has denied staging a "moral show" to save the patient in response to online suspicions about his motivation.

"There would have been risks of failure, complications and infections. For a professional doctor, it would not have been cost-effective to make such a risky show," said Zhang Hong, a doctor with the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Zhang, 55, sucked mouthfuls of urine from an elderly man who was unable to urinate because of a bladder rupture during an international flight from Guangzhou to New York early Tuesday morning.

"It was not worthy of such a risky 'trade'-even Warren Buffett would not do so," Zhang said in a text message on Sina Weibo on Friday.

After reports of his act were posted online, Zhang became the center of heated debate, with some saying he had engaged in a "show" to save the patient.

While traveling on the China Southern flight, Zhang-along with another doctor, Xiao Zhanxiang-learned of an older man who was unable to urinate and at risk of possible bladder rupture with six hours of flight time remaining.