What started as an innocent dare ended up being a tragic story for a 19-year-old who was left paralysed for eight years.
Look, we’ve all had the odd round of dares with our pals that hasn’t exactly ended perfectly. But unfortunately, this one in Australia ended up deadly for this lad's health.
Sam Ballard and his friends were sitting around having a ‘red wine appreciation’ night back in 2010, as they tried ‘to act as grown ups’.
However, his mate Jimmy explained that pretence kind of went out the window when a ‘slug came crawling across’.
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“The conversation came, ‘Should I eat it?’ and off Sam went,” he said.
In any situation, deciding to eat a living slimy creature off the floor probably isn’t the best of ideas. But typically, it will just leave you with an aching sense of regret and an aching stomach.
However, in the case of Ballard, the slug turned out to be infected with a parasite known as rat lungworm.
Tragically, the Aussie lad soon began to experience severe weakness and pain throughout his legs. He then ended up contracting a strand of meningitis known as eosinophilic meningoencephalitis.
A rare disease, this occurs when the central nervous system is infected by helminthic parasites (worms) and it can be pretty intense on the body.
For Ballard, it resulted in him falling into a 420-day coma.
With over a year passed and having his life altered forever, the lad eventually woke up to discover the nasty parasite had sparked an infection to spread to his brain.
Continuing the suffering, this meant he was severely paralysed to the extent where he was unable to eat without assistance.
The young lad therefore needed round the clock care and lived out his life in a wheelchair before he sadly died at the age of 28 in November 2018.
His mum, Katie, took care of him every day after he came out of his coma, noting that simple things like using the bathroom were very difficult.
But despite the conditions that led to his changed life, she didn’t blame his friends for the dare. Instead, the mum said they were just 'being mates'.
When Ballard died his friends and family were at his side, as he said his last words to his mum shortly before: “I love you.”
Jess Battison