He ate a slug on a challenge, became paralyzed and died

"We were sitting here, spending the night enjoying red wine, trying to play the role of adults," recalls Galvin. video interview This year with Lisa Wilkinson of "The Sunday Project", a television news broadcast broadcast on Network 10 in Australia. CNN contacted Galvin but did not get an answer.

"And then the conversation started," Should I eat it? "Recalls Galvin. "And then Sam left and went away, that's how it happened."

After descending the slug, Sam became weak and complained of severe leg pain, according to "The Sunday Project". Sam's mother, Katie Ballard, told the TV news that at first they were worried that he was suffering from multiple sclerosis, which had affected her husband. But the doctors said no, it was not the cause.

Sam then turned to his mother and told him that he had eaten a slug. "And I went:" No, nobody gets sick of that, "said Katie Ballard, CNN also made contact with Ballard.

Soon, however, the doctors told them the opposite. Sam had developed rat lungworm disease from the infected slug, changing his life forever.

What is rat lungworm disease?

Lungworm disease in rats is caused by a parasitic worm called Angiostronjilus cantonensis. As its name suggests, the parasite gets lodged in the rats' lungs and is then excreted in the poop.

Then comes a slug, a snail, a freshwater crab, a shrimp, a shrimp or a frog, and eat either rat dung, or the parasite seeps into the creature that l? infected. Fish, however, do not propagate the parasite.

Humans can be infected if they eat contaminated raw or undercooked animals, or vegetables with snails or invisible slugs that have not been washed thoroughly.

In addition, according to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, beverages may be contaminated with worms if left open to allow entry of snails and slugs.

Unlike rats, the life cycle of the worm is not over in humans. So, instead of going through the digestive tract, worm larvae "can get lost, they'll go to the brain and stay there," said Heather Stockdale Walden, badistant professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathology. University of Florida. The parasite is not transmitted from man to man.

"When he reaches the brain, you can have eosinophilic meningitis," said Walden, an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

Symptoms may include headache, nausea, vomiting, fever and stiff neck, the CDC said.

"So full of love"

Most cases of lungworm disease in rats are usually mild. But in some cases, like Sam's, the disease can cause catastrophic damage.

Shortly after the diagnosis, Sam fell into a coma, where he stayed for 420 days, Ballard told the Australian newspaper. He woke up paralyzed, unable to eat without a tube or to move without intense effort. He needed care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But the disease did not affect his mental faculties, said his family and friends.

"It's 100%," Galvin told the Sunday Project. "I apologized to Sam for everything that happened that night in the yard, and he just started bawling his eyes, I know he's here."

Sam died at the end of last week: "Wilkinson was writing in a blog post.