He ate a slug on a challenge. Now he is dead.

Lindsey Bever | The Washington Post

Sam Ballard swallowed the slug on a challenge.

The young Sydney rugby player was a "larrikin", a "brutal" free spirit, said his mother. So, when the creature crawled on a table at a party in 2010 and his mates challenged him to eat it, his son accepted the challenge, she said.

"Twenty-year-old boys, red wine, alcohol, sitting at a mate's table – a slug lies on the table, someone makes fun of a challenge," said his mother, Katie Ballard, during an interview the following year. "Boys will be boys," she said.

The challenge was perhaps innocent enough.

But after swallowing the slug, Ballard contracted a rat lung worm – a parasitic worm (Angiostrongylus cantonensis) that lives in rodents and can be transmitted to snails and slugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These gastropods can then transmit the worm to humans.

In an unusual and tragic turn, the parasite infested Ballard's brain, plunging him into a coma for over a year and leaving him paralyzed, according to News.com.au. In the end, it killed him.

Ballard, 29, died late last week, according to the Sunday Project. His last words to his mother were "I like you," according to the Australian TV news.

Ballard began to experience intense leg pain a few days after eating the slug, according to the Sunday Project.

He asked his mother if it could be caused by the creature.

"No, nobody gets sick of that," said his mother, recalling the incident during an interview early in the year.

But his doctors soon discovered that he had fallen ill from the slug.

"He was scared," his mother told the Sunday Project. "So, you know, as a mother, all you want to do is reassure them. As far as I'm concerned, he did nothing wrong. It was just a stupid thing. "

In this special report @ Lisa_Wilkinson talk to Sam Ballard's extraordinary family and friends #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/UXY5KGeWjF

– The project (@theprojecttv) April 1, 2018

Ballard, whose mother said that he once seemed "invincible," became tetraplegic. For years, he suffered convulsions, was forced to eat and breathe with the help of tubes. He therefore needed constant care, which the family was struggling to pay, according to the Daily Telegraph.

In 2011, Katie Ballard wrote on Facebook that her son was "always the same cheeeeeeeekkkyyy Sam" and that she believed that he would talk and walk again.

Sunday Project's Lisa Wilkinson wrote in a column Monday: "The beautiful angel of Sam's mother, Katie, has been at her side as the main assistant, never losing her love; feed him, shoot him, drive him, wash him, arrange him visits to the doctor and to the hospital, always trying to find the clearest moments for her to see her boy smile again, waking up with every sound of the night, always ensuring that Sam's friends felt welcomed in his new limited world. When they came, as they often did, Sam's eyes would still light up.

"And Katie was always, always optimistic for what the future was holding for her."

Now, Ballard is dead.

The parasitic worm Angiostrongylus cantonensis lives in the lungs of rodents.

As the CDC explained in a video, the rodent – usually a rat – coughs up and then swallows and swallows them, forcing them into the animal's stomach. Finally, the rat excretes the worms.

According to the CDC, snails or slugs can be infected by eating rat feces, and people can become infected by feeding on snails or slugs.

According to the CDC:

People can become infected by eating raw or undercooked snails or slugs contaminated with this parasite. In some cultures, snails are commonly eaten. Some children, in particular, were infected by swallowing snails / slugs "in fashion. "People can also be accidentally infected by eating raw products (such as lettuce) containing a small snail, slug or part of it.

Some animals, such as freshwater prawns, crabs and frogs, have been infected by parasite larvae. It is possible that eating infected raw or undercooked animals may result in infection, although the evidence is less clear than eating infected snails and slugs. Note that fish do not spread this parasite.

Cases have been reported in Hawaii, as well as in the continental United States, according to the CDC. A child from New Orleans contracted the parasite in 1993 while eating a snail "at the boot", according to the agency, but did not need treatment.

Australian health officials have described the disease as "extremely rare."

The New South Wales Department of Health has indicated in an information sheet that most sufferers have no symptoms; when they do, the symptoms are usually temporary and mild, said the health agency.

According to the ministry:

Very rarely, the rat lung worm causes a brain infection called eosinophilic meningoencephalitis. Sufferers may have headache, stiff neck, tingling or pain in the skin, fever, nausea and vomiting. The time between eating a slug or snail and getting sick is usually 1 to 3 weeks.

Anyone with these symptoms should seek medical attention, although other infections (such as meningococcal meningitis or pneumococcal disease) are much more likely to cause meningitis in children.

Health officials advise people not to eat raw snails or slugs, wash fruits and vegetables well and inspect them for stickiness.