Sydney man who contracted rat lungworm after eating slug dies

SAM Ballard, the Sydney man who fell into a coma and became paralysed after eating a slug, has tragically died eight years on.

Rohan Smith@ro_smith

SAM Ballard never did anything wrong, if you ask family and friends.  The teenager from Sydney’s upper north shore was having a laugh and some red wine with mates in the backyard, “trying to act like grown ups”.  It was 2010 and it was a night that would change the 19-year-old’s life, and the lives of everybody around him, forever.  A slug crawled across the concrete patio and, teens being teens, a dare emerged for Sam to eat it.   One of his best friends, Jimmy Galvin, later described the moment.

“We were sitting over here having a bit of a red wine appreciation night, trying to act as grown up and a slug came crawling across here,” he said.  “The conversation came up, you know. ‘Should I eat it?’ And off Sam went. Bang. That’s how it happened.”................Doctors later determined Sam was infected with rat lungworm.  The worm that infected Sam is usually found in rodents, but snails and slugs can also become infected when they eat rat faeces.  Sam contracted eosinophilic meningo-encephalitis, which many people recover from. Sam didn’t...........To Read More....