According to reports, cabin crew made an emergency broadcast asking for medical assistance from any doctors on board at roughly 1:55am local time on 19th November.

The elderly male passenger could not relieve himself and was sweating heavily from discomfort, but the flight was still six hours from New York and any potential standby paramedics.

Doctor Zhang Hong, who is head of vascular surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, identified himself and offered to help.

Present was also Hainan People’s Hospital vascular surgeon Xiao Zhangxiang, reports said.

Doctor Zhang told Chinese media later: “The pensioner’s abdomen was bloated, he could not sit still and was sweating a lot.

“He was going into shock and may have suffered a risk to his life if we didn’t tend to him urgently.

“His family said he had a history of prostate enlargement, so we suspected this was causing urinary retention.” FULL STORY HERE