The human balloon: Truck driver survives being INFLATED after air brakes tube pierced his bottom

'It felt like I had the bends, like in diving. I had no choice but just to lay there, blowing up like a balloon'

When he became a lorry driver, Steven McCormack probably felt he could handle the stresses of the job.

But the 48-year-old New Zealander couldn't have anticipated quite what sort of pressure he would have to endure.

Mr McCormack was blown up like a balloon after falling on to a compressed air tube in a freak accident.

The end of the tube pierced the flesh of his left buttock, forcing compressed air at the rate of 100 pounds per square inch into his body, swelling it to bursting point.

Truck driver Steven McCormack is being treated at Whakatane Hospital after an accident with an air hose

All smiles: The 48-year-old is shown grinning after his ordeal - he knows how lucky he has been

'I felt like I was going to explode from my foot upwards,' said Mr McCormack who is recovering in the intensive care unit of Whakatane Hospital.

'They've told me I'm lucky to be alive after blowing up like a balloon.'

Mr McCormack, from the Bay of Plenty area, recalled how he was standing on a metal plate between the cabin of his lorry and a semi-trailer at his company's workshop.

He lost his footing and as he fell he broke the hose off a brass nipple connected to the compressed air reservoir powering the lorry's brakes.

He fell hard on to the nipple, which was gushing out air, piercing the flesh of his buttock.

One in a million: A colleague of Mr McCormack's points out where the hose that almost killed the 48-year-old truck driver came lose



This graphic shows how the air affected Mr McCormack's lungs and body

'I was blowing up like a football,' he said. 'It felt like I had the bends, like in diving. I had no choice but just to lay there, blowing up like a balloon.'

Mr McCormack's workmates came rushing to his aid when they heard his screams.

Company co-owner Robbie Petersen, one of the first to arrive heard the roar of air rushing into Mr McCormack's body and quickly released a safety valve to stop the air flow.



One of his workmates, Jason Wenham, placed the inflated man on to his side in the recovery position, a move that is thought to have saved his life because it helped him to breathe.



Mr McCormack's head and neck were swollen and one lung was filling with fluid, but the workmen managed to ease the swelling by packing ice around his neck.



Later, after hospital doctors had inserted a tube into his lungs to drain the fluid and cleared the wound in his buttocks.

Mr McCormack says the wound was cleared with something that felt to him like a drill, and that it was 'the most painful part'.



Doctors later told him they were surprised the air didn’t break the skin, as it separated fat from muscle.



Mr McCormack said his skin felt like 'a pork roast' - crackling on the outside but soft underneath.

