In 2010, Australian teenager Sam Ballard was drinking with his friends when they saw a slug crawl across the floor.

Sam’s friends dared him to eat the slug and after some debate he decided it would be funny, so he did.

A few days later Sam became weak and complained of severe pain in his legs.

After visiting the emergency room doctors told him that he had contracted a parasite known as ‘rat lungworm’ from the slug.

Soon after the diagnosis, Sam fell into a coma, where he remained for 420 days.

He woke up paralyzed, unable to eat without a tube or move without intense effort. He required 24-hour care, seven days a week.

He died 8 years later in 2018.