small could an Australian teenager have known about the tragical upshot ofeating a bare-ass slugas a “ dare ” .
Back in 2010 , then 19 - year - sometime rugby player Sam Ballard was at a company with his supporter when he was dare to consume a slug found in the garden . But it turned out that that slug was taint with a parasitic worm , which hasleft him quadriplegic .
The parasite , calledAngiostrongylus cantonensis , is more ordinarily known as rat lungworm . As their name evoke , these worms are usually found living in the lungs of rodents where they mature , squeeze the rats to cough them up into their throat before swallow the adults . These nematodes then move through the digestive pathway of the gnawer , before being pooped out the other death .
It is at this head that punch and snails become infected , as they feast on the crumb poop containing the worms . unremarkably , the gastropod are then eaten by the so-and-so and the cps starts again . But in some cases , the infected slugs and snails are deplete by other things that can harbour the parasite , such as frogs , shrimps , and crabs . And occasionally humans .
There have been a few cases of multitude contracting blabber lungworm in the past , but none with quite such a devastating ending . In 1993 , for example , a young son in New Orleans eat a unsanded snail – again as a “ daring ” – and came down with muscle aches , a fragile pyrexia , and vomiting , but managed to earn the infection within a few weeks .
In the case of the unfortunate teenager in Australia , however , the musical passage of the bloodsucking worm into the nervous organization and eventually the mastermind tissue led to the developing ofeosinophilic meningoencephalitis . As a solution , Ballard fell into a coma for 420 days , and upon waking was no longer able to use any of his branch and expect a alimentation tube . Eight old age on , and he still requires around - the - clock guardianship .
Unfortunately , this care has come at a dense cost for the kinsperson , who are apace prevail out of funds to confirm Ballard . A situationmade all the worseby the fact that the Australian government has now slashed the amount of help it was plan on giving them as a elbow room to assist palliate these expense .
Rat lungworm is prevalent throughout East Asia , Australasia , and the Pacific Islands , but has also been find in parts of Africa , the Caribbean , and the United States . It is recommended that , evidently , you do n’t eat raw slugs and escargot . You should also lap any green veg that might be hiding them , and ensure that other foods like frog , shrimp , and pediculosis pubis are fully cooked before eat them .
