Man nearly explodes after air valve penetrates his butt

Feb. 21, 2014
His boss and other workers tried unsuccessfully to pull the valve out of him. The pressure compressed his heart and lungs. He spent three days in the hospital recovering.

New Zealand trucker Steven McCormack was working on his rig on the country's North Island's east coast when he slipped and fell onto a broken air valve that penetrated his left buttock, reported Jeremy Tanner of pix11.com.

The 100-PSI pressure inflated the man to twice his normal size, despite efforts of his boss and other workers to separate him from the air line.

“The sensation was like when you’re diving with the bends, and you have to go back down to let the air pressure come off your body,” McCormack said.  “I could hear the sound of the air going into me and the people walking around me, but they didn’t want to get near because of what they could see, it wasn’t a very nice sight.”

McCormack reported that paramedics had trouble treating him because of the pressure inside his body. When they tried to start and IV, the pressure popped the needle out. At the hospital, doctors intubated his lungs through his torso.
It took him three days to recover because, "you just have to fart it out or burp it out."

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