Sam Ballard, the young Australian rugby player paralyzed after swallowing a slug, died after 9 years of ordeal for him and his family. The garden slug was the object of a dumb bet between teenagers, but it carried a parasite that caused a serious brain infection.
It was a stupid bet between teenagers soaked, and Sam Ballard, the 19-year-old Australian rugby hopeful, swallowed this slug at a boozy party with friends. Unfortunately, this common garden slug contained a parasite called Angiostrongylus cantonensis, whose usual host is the rat.
Most often, people infected with this parasite do not have a problem. Exceptionally, an infected person can contract meningoencephalitis, a serious infection that affects the meninges, but also the brain, with severe lesions as a result. This is the case of Sam, who fell into a coma that lasted more than a year.
Irreversible quadriplegia
When he wakes up, the young man is quadriplegic, the neurological sequelae linked to the brain damage are irreversible… He spends 3 years in the hospital and his care is financed by the Australian national disability insurance scheme, the NDIS, up to $492,000 (about €397,216). Lately, the young man of 28 years was totally dependent: he had to be fed by gastric tube, he had epileptic seizures, his body temperature was completely deregulated and he remained paralyzed in a wheelchair…
A difficult end
However, the insurance scheme had decided last September to reduce Sam’s benefit to $135,000 (about €108,973). Sam’s friends and relatives then organized themselves to obtain financial support on social networks and set up a kitty to compensate for the reduction in the allowance. We had echoed this.
But in recent months, Sam’s condition had deteriorated sharply and Sam had fallen into a deep coma (vegetative coma). He died after 9 years of agony following a stupid bet, a bet like many young people do every day. The money will be used to pay for his funeral.
The parasite in question: Angiostrongylus cantonensis
Ingestion of the parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis by man can exceptionally, after an incubation which lasts 2 to 3 weeks, cause meningoencephalitis with paralysis of the cranial nerves and other lesions of the brain. This parasite is transmitted through the digestive tract, it is a “zoonosis” whose reservoir is made up of crustaceans, snails and slugs. Slugs become infected by ingesting rodent droppings.
Rats harbor a form of the parasite that is normally non-infectious to humans. The latter can be contaminated via contaminated food or water, by ingestion of snails, slugs or parasitized crustaceans, as well as by plants (salad). Cases are generally located in Africa, Asia and Oceania. There is no specific treatment.
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