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By Lindsey Bever | The Washington Post
Sam Ballard swallowed the slug on a dare.
The young rugby player from Sydney was a "larrikin" – a "rough-and-tumble" free spirit, his mother said. So when the creature crawled across a table at a party in 2010 and his buddies dared to eat it, her her accepted the challenge, she said.
"Twenty-year-old boys, red wine, alcohol, sitting at some mate's table – a slug goes onto the table," his mother, Katie Ballard, told 7 News Sydney in an interview the following year. "Boys will be boys," she said.
The dare may have been innocent enough.
But after swallowing the slug, Ballard contracted a lungworm – a parasitic worm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis) that lives in rodents and can be pbaded onto snails and slugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those gastropods can then transmit the worm to humans.
In an unusual and tragic turn, the parasite infested Ballard 's brain – putting him in a coma for more than a year and leaving him paralyzed, according to News.com.au. Ultimately, it killed him.
Ballard, 29, died late last week, according to the Sunday Project. His last words to his mother were, "I love you," according to the Australian news show.
Ballard started experiencing severe slowness in the aftermath of slug, according to the Sunday Project.
He asked his mother whether it was caused by the critter.
"No, no one gets sick from that," his mother said she told him, recalling the incident in an interview earlier this year.
But his doctors soon discovered that he had gotten sick from the slug.
"He was scared," his mother told the Sunday Project. "So, you know, have a mom, all you want to do is rebadure them. As far as I'm concerned, he did not do anything wrong. It was just a silly thing. "
In this special report @Lisa_Wilkinson talks to the amazing family and friends of Sam Ballard #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/UXY5KGeWjF
– The Project (@theprojecttv) April 1, 2018
Ballard, whose mother said he seemed "invincible," became quadriplegic. For years, he has suffered from seizures, was forced to eat and breathe through the tubes and required constant care, which the family struggled to pay for, according to the Daily Telegraph.
In 2011, Katie Ballard wrote on Facebook that her son was "still the same cheeeeeeeekkkyyy Sam" and that she thought he would talk again.
The Sunday Project's Lisa Wilkinson wrote in a column Monday, for almost nine years, "Sam's beautiful angel of a mum" Katie has been right by Sam's side as his chief carer, never wavering in her love; feeding him, wheeling him, bathing and toileted, getting ready to go to the beach, always making fun felt welcome in his new, limited world. When they visited, they often did, Sam's eyes would always light up.
"And Katie was always, always optimistic for what the future holds for him."
Now, Ballard is dead.
The parasitic worm Angiostrongylus cantonensis lives inside rodents' lungs.
As the CDC explained in a video, the rodent – typically a rat – coughs up the worms and then swallows them, forcing them into the animal 's stomach. Eventually, the rat excretes the worms.
Snails or slugs can get infected by eating the rat's feces, according to the CDC, and people can get infected by eating the snails or slugs.
According to the CDC:
People can get infected by eating raw or undercooked snails or slugs that are infected with this parasite. In some cultures, snails are commonly eaten. Some children, in particular, have gotten infected by swallowing snails / slugs "on a dare. "People also can get infected by accident, by eating raw produce (such as lettuce) that contains a small snail or slug or part of one.
Some animals such as freshwater shrimp, crabs, and gold frogs, have been found to be infected with the larvae of the parasite. It is possible that it is possible to get infected, but it is possible to get infected, but it is not possible to get infected with infected snails and slugs. Of note, fish do not spread this parasite.
Cases have been reported in Hawaii, in the United States, according to the CDC. A New Orleans boy contracted the parasite in 1993 by eating a snail "we have," according to the agency, but did not need treatment.
Australian health officials have called it "an extremely rare infection."
The New South Wales Ministry of Health. when they do, the symptoms are usually temporary and mild, the health agency said.
According to the ministry:
Very rarely, rat lung worm causes an infection (infestation) of the brain called eosinophilic meningo-encephalitis. People with this condition may have headaches, stiff necks, tingling or pain in the skin, fever, nausea, and vomiting. The time between eating the slug and getting sick is usually 1-3 weeks.
Anyone with these symptoms should be considered to be more likely to cause meningococcal disease or pneumococcal disease.
Health officials warn people to eat raw snails or slices and to thoroughly wash fruits and vegetables and inspect them for the slimy creatures.
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