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

DailyMail.co.uk ^ | May 25 2011 | Richard Sheers

[Celtic Cross]

'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.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

The story sounds like an attempt to creat an urban legend.

[RedMDer]

[camerongood210]

Mr Petersen said it was 'a million-to-one' freak accident.

[PATRIOT1876]

Ouch! That’s got to be painful.

It reminds me of Hurricane Harry from the Cool McCool show.

“Danger is my business”

[PATRIOT1876]

Guinness World Record officials are standing by to record the world’s biggest fart. It may even exceed what comes out of Bill Maher’s mouth every day!

[Larry Lucido]

I’m picturing the Three Stooges episode where Moe falls into a vat of tar and then gets inflated by an air hose and floats to the ceiling.

[ReneeLynn]

You’ll have to start a Stooges ping list! :)

[Slings and Arrows]

Put this on my list of things I would not want to experience OR SURVIVE!

It's on my list, right after "A Marxist crypto-Muslim Kenyan in the White House."

[Darksheare]

Ah, the old “I fell on it” claim.

[TheOldLady]

Guy really blew it.

[Slings and Arrows]

“Million-to-one shot, doc! Million-to-one!”

[Slings and Arrows]

*rimshot*

[TheOldLady]

[Darksheare]

Wasn’t there an episode of Scrubs about this?

[clearcarbon]

Libs tend to be self-inflating.

[Larry Lucido]

You’ll be first on my “list”! :-)

I found this synopsis of “Dizzy Pilots” here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Balloonacy

•This was done in The Three Stooges, in an odd variation of this trope, where Moe himself became a balloon. In Dizzy Pilots, Moe falls into a tub of tar, and to get the tar off of him, Larry and Curly cut a hole in his clothes and begin filling it up with gas. Hilarity Ensues as Moe begins to float away when Larry and Curly aren’t looking, and they spend the next sizable chunk of the episode trying to get Moe down. He eventually floats through an opening in the ceiling and into the sky. Hearing Moe cry during the ordeal makes this a candidate for Crowning Moment Of Funny.

Can’t find any pictures but I bet it’s on Youtube.

[Larry Lucido]

Three Stooges ping. If you want on or off, go “Woowoowoowoowoowoo!”

The fun starts at 4:20.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7P2Dl_M7DY

[Slings and Arrows]

Dunno - check the Ass Box.

[Darksheare]

Yes, that would be the episode.

[ReneeLynn]

Thanks for the link! Good gosh, I love The Stooges.