A Cumberland man is warning his fellow east end residents to take extra care when filling their wagon wheels up with air.

Leo Lane resident Mike Potvin was filling up the tires on his utility wagon on June 30 when the split rim on one of the tires blew apart causing severe lacerations to his face requiring more than 150 stitches, a broken orbital bone, a broken nose, a hole in his upper palate and the loss of more than a dozen dental implants.

Cumberland resident Mike Potvin (right) required more than 150 stiched to close up the large gash to his face caused when the tire assembly on his wagon exploded while he was inflating one of the tires (left). PHOTOS

"I had already filled up two of the tires and was filling up the third one, when it just exploded in my face,�� explains Potvin. "At first I didn't know what happened and then some of the implants fell out of my mouth into my hands and that's when I noticed all the blood.��

Potvin's partner, Jacynthe, was using a pressure washer to clean the landing on their home about 30 yards away and didn't hear the explosion, or his cries for help.

He ended up walking over to her under his own power and then fell to his knees. Jacynthe immediately called 9-1-1 and an ambulance arrived 10 minutes later which rushed him to the trauma unit at he Ottawa Hospital's Civic Campus. He remained conscious the whole time. Once in the trauma unit, he was looked after by an entire team that included a cosmetic surgeon, a dental surgeon and a trauma doctor.

"They were unbelievable. I can't say enough about how I was looked after, it was right out of one of those TV shows like ER,�� describes Potvin.

Back home on the shore on the Ottawa River just over three weeks later, the 72-year-old Potvin looks remarkably better... all things considered. His biggest issue is his mouth. The exploding tire rim broke away a portion of the bone in his upper and lower jaw where the implants were drilled in. He may end up having to use a prosthetic denture.

Potvin says he was extremely lucky the metal rim didn't hit him in the throat or take out his eye. He also wants to try and prevent a similar incident from happening in the future.

"It wasn't the tire that blew up, it was the rim,�� explains Potvin.

Most tire assemblies on wagons and dollies and put together with something called a split rim. The two halves of the rim are held together by a series of five bolts.

As the rim corrodes over time, the metal around the bolts weakens. The older the rim gets and the longer it's exposed to the elements the weaker it gets. Ultimately, it is prone to a critical failure. If enough pressure builds up in the tire, the force applied against the rim becomes too much with potentially dangerous consequences.

A quick search of split rim explosions or split rim injuries turns up dozens of posts on the Internet. The best way to avoid potential injury is to use a cage around the wheel when inflating it, or replace the tires altogether before a catastrophe occurs.

"No way I had any idea it would blow up like that. It's just a wagon for crying out loud,� says Potvin.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)