Results: Don't Chug that Slug!

Sam Ballard, from Sydney, Australia, was 19 in 2010. While hanging out with friends Sam was dared to eat a slug crawling through a garden. Have you ever been dared to do something?

Sam, who was a keen rugby player, began to have pain in his legs days later after doing the dare. After visiting the doctor, he was told he had rat lungworm, or Angiostrongyliasis. This is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It is caused by a roundworm parasite that, in adult form, is normally only found in rodents. However, an infected rodent can pass on the larvae through their feces, with slugs and snails sometimes becoming infected if they eat the larvae. Have you heard of this disease before this survey?

Most people are said to recover from the illness, but Sam suffered a severe infection in his brain. In Sam's case, he contracted eosinophilic meningoencephalitis, a type of meningitis caused by rat lungworm. He fell into a coma that lasted over a year. When he woke up, doctors discovered he suffered from brain injury and was left as a paraplegic (meaning he was paralysed from the waist down). Do you know anyone who is paraplegic?

This past Friday, at the age of 27, Sam passed away. He was surrounded by his family and loyal, loving mates. Sam's last words to his mum: "I love you." Cases of rat lungworm becoming fatal are rare. In the US, the disease is most often found in Hawaii, with few cases reported in the continental states. If/when you hear the words 'I dare you' in the future, will this make you think twice before taking the dare?