An Australian man died of various complications after swallowing a garden slug eight years ago that left him paralyzed.
In 2010, then 19-year-old Sam Ballard was dared by his friends to eat a garden slug which they saw crawling while they were having a backyard party in Sydney.
One of the people who were present during the party, Jimmy Galvin, said that Ballard gave in and eventually ate the garden slug.
“The conversation came up, you know. ‘Should I eat it?’ And off Sam went. Bang. That’s how it happened,” Galvin said.
Days after the incident, Ballard complained of pain in his legs and he was later diagnosed with being infected with rat lungworm, a parasite that the garden slug acquired from eating rat faeces.
Ballard also contracted eosinophilic meningo-encephalitis and fell into coma for 420 days. When he woke up, he acquired brain injuries and was paralyzed from the neck down.
After eight years of fighting, Ballard died on November 2 with his last words being “I love you” towards his mother.
Ballard’s mother, Katie, also did not blame her son’s friends for what happened. Katie said her son’s friends stuck by him over the last eight years.
