WHAKATANE, New Zealand — As long as he lives, Steven McCormack will probably never again refer to his airline connectors as “glad” hands.

According to media reports, McCormack, the 48-year-old New Zealander accidentally had his left buttock pierced by a glad hand. And since his truck was running at the time, the air kept pumping, so much so that he almost blew up.

McCormack was standing between his truck and trailer when lost his footing and fell on to the glad hand. It broke and the airline entered McCormack’s backside.

"I felt the air rush into my body and I felt like I was going to explode," he told 3News in New Zealand on Tuesday.

"I was blowing up like a football," he said. "I had no choice but just to lay there, blowing up like a balloon."

Media reports say the air actually filled his body, inflating his chest, face and legs and it separated his fat from his muscles.

Co-workers eventually came to his rescue but even after an ambulance arrived, the paramedics had a hard time deflating McCormack because they tried to put a drip in but the air kept pushing it back out again.

Eventually the driver released the air by means of the only routes possible: He burped and passed wind. It took three days for him to return to normal size.