His friends dared to eat a slug. He died 8 years later

"In a single night, his life … changed forever." So says the host of an Australian TV show in his tribute to Sam Ballard, a young man who took an ill-advised dare from his friends in 2010 and just died from complications related to that challenge.

Tea New Zealand Herald reports that Ballard-said to be 27 or 28-pbaded away eight years after his pals, during a night of drinking, egged on slug.

Ballard did, and soon after he started feeling bread in his legacies; the Independent notes he also started vomiting and had dizzy spells. He ended up falling into a coma for more than a year, and the reason was stunning: He had been infected with rat lungworm, a parasite usually found in rodents, but which can sometimes end up in snails and slugs if they eat rat excrement .

As a result of the parasite, Ballard contracted a type of meningitis tied to lungworm, and went downhill from there.

The former rugby player had had a previous relationship with the other [knew he was] There, one of his friends tells the Herald.

Ballard's mother, who has said it's not blame his friends for the slug-eating dare, has been fighting the Australian government since at least last October, when his son's disability was significantly cut.

Lisa Wilkinson, the TV host who's interviewed the Ballards, says her final words to her mom were: "I love you."

(This teen's friends buried him in sand .. Then came the hookworms.)

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