A 19-year-old rugby player from Sydney, described by family and friends as 'rough-and-tumble', fell ill after eating a garden slug on a dare, with fatal consequences. Sam Ballard died in November 2018 at the age of 27, eight years after the incident.
The dare and the illness
Sam was at an ordinary weekend get-together with friends in 2010, described by friend Jimmy Galvin in an interview with All That's Interesting as "a bit of a red wine appreciation night." When the friends were already drunk, they spotted a garden slug and dared Sam to eat it, which he did.
For a few days, nothing seemed wrong. Then Sam began complaining of severe leg pain, dizziness, and vomiting. His mother, Katie, rushed him to hospital, fearing multiple sclerosis, which had affected his father, but doctors ruled that out.
Rat lungworm disease
Sam had contracted rat lungworm disease, caused by a parasite found in rodents and transmitted to slugs and snails when they eat infected rodent droppings. People usually catch it by accidentally eating infected slugs, snails, or unwashed raw produce carrying the parasite's larvae, which can travel to the brain and cause painful inflammation.
When Sam explained what they had done, his mother's reaction was dismissive: "And I went, 'No, no one gets sick from that,'" she said on the Australian current affairs show The Project.
Coma and paralysis
In most cases, rat lungworm disease causes mild symptoms that clear up within days or weeks, but in rare instances, it can cause serious neurological damage. For Sam, the infection triggered severe inflammation around his brain and spinal cord, and he slipped into a coma that lasted 420 days.
When he woke, Sam was paralysed, in a wheelchair, and unable to eat without a feeding tube. He required round-the-clock care, was prone to seizures, and couldn't regulate his own body temperature. He spent three years in hospital before being discharged in a wheelchair.
Final years and warning
Katie described her son before the accident as "invincible," cheeky, and "rough-and-tumble," and said she never blamed his friends, insisting they were simply young men "just being mates." The friends stayed by Sam's side, visiting and watching rugby with him, even pouring tiny sips of beer onto his lips when his mother stepped out.
Sam's final words to his mother were "I love you." Friend Jimmy Galvin later reflected: "Before you jump off a roof into a pool, or if you're daring a mate to eat something stupid, just think about it, because it can have the worst consequence. Just take care of each other."
