I've had a pneumothorax - the collapsed lung part of his experience - which required major surgery and a painful recuperation. That was awful enough on its own but was only a tiny part of what he experienced. Yikes.
I've had a pneumomediastinum - similar thing but right next to my heart. Pretty scary just having a massive pain in your chest and not knowing what's wrong. I was lucky though and didn't need any surgery and it just cleared up on its own.
You are lucky. Pneumomediasitnum gets particularly nasty if you the reason you have it is a torn esophagus, and you have partially eaten food (along with the air) leaking into the sack around your heart.
I've had three (all spontaneous). The first one was pretty serious and they had to put in a chest tube in a bit of a hurry, so nothing aside from a small amount of topical anesthetic. Seeing them stuff several inches of a metal tube directly into your chest is like being shot in slow motion.