Posted on 11/05/2018 5:26:26 AM PST by Gamecock
A man in Australia has died from rat lungworm caused by a garden slug he ate for a dare eight years earlier.
Sam Ballard, who was a promising rugby player, died at the age of 27 after developing a series of complications from the disease.
Ballard was 19 in 2010 when he and some friends were drinking wine with his friends in a garden. “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,” his friend Jimmy Galvin told news.com.au.
“The conversation came up, you know. ‘Should I eat it?’ And off Sam went. Bang. That’s how it happened.”
Over the following days, Ballard’s legs began to hurt and he worried the slug could be the cause. 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Tragic.
There is a tragedy linked to every Darwin award.
Why do these disgusting posts show up on this forum? It’s loath able
Don’t eat stuff off the sidewalk
you don’t need it, so don’t eat it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFYv7ly-7EM
College fraternities in the 1920s thought goldfish were fine live table fare.
Sometimes you eat the slug, sometimes the slug eats you.
Fair Dinkum.
Don’t click on it.
Even the neophyte snake-eater knows your garden slug has to have reached an internal temperature of 165* F. before it is safe to eat. And they really go well with Frank’s (”I put that sh*t on everything!) hot sauce.
I said headlines. Did you see that?
Another “Hold my drink...watch this” moment. Another “Monsters Inside Me” episode being produced.
Good rule of thumb: Everything in Australia is unsafe to eat.
Harmless dumb pranks sometimes aren’t. RIP, man.
That show is interesting AND absolutely disgusting.
My favorite... the guy working in the sewers who never once thought that being hit by daily mists of fecal matter would ever have an adverse effect on his health.
LOL! I was going to say that he just needed to cook it, but you beat me ;-)
Because I keep posting them.
I find them sad. As a health care clinician I found it interesting as I have never heard of this condition and vector does exist in the US. Articles like this just may help others.
If you don’t care for them stop clicking on the articles. It is really quite simple
Keep an eye on this thread...you’ll find Stanne still hanging around and commenting on Post #110 or #173. Some people just cannot avert their gaze from car wrecks.
I want to thank you for posting this and other health related articles. Many are very instructive on how to lead a healthy life. This one probably has the best tip of all on staying healthy. I know I learned a lesson here today!
It's an Aussie equivalent of a "Hold Ma Beer, er, Wine" moment.
(Months ago, a poster pointed out that rat lungworm infections are much more common in China, and the symptoms would have been recognized and the infection treated much sooner.)
Sad story, but that slug didn't have the then-teen's name on it.
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