Man who swallowed slug on a dare, dies

SYDNEY: Australian Sam Ballard, who was paralysed after eating a slug in 2010, has died at age 28.

He died in hospital in Sydney on Friday surrounded by his family and close friends.

The promising rugby player was only 19 when he swallowed the slug at a party in Sydney eight years ago following a dare by friends and became i nfected by a r are parasite.

Barker was taken to hospital after spells of dizziness and vomiting. He was found to have been infected with rat lungworm, a parasite normally found in rats but also sometimes in snails and slugs.

The teenager then contracted eosinophilic meningoencephalitis, a form of meningitis, and lapsed into a coma for 420 days before doctors revived him.

But when he woke up, he was diagnosed with a serious brain injury. Further complications from the original infection left him paralysed and in need of constant care.

“While doctors had managed to save him in time, he was confined to a wheelchair, with limited communication skills, and needing 24-hour, seven-days-a-week care,” said Lisa Wilkinson, a presenter on The Sunday Project show who previously interviewed the Ballard family.

“Sam was 19, and in a single night, his life had changed forever,” Wilkinson said on Monday.

His mother Katie Ballard previously said she did not blame the friends who dared her son to eat the slug. – The Independent