It was a dare that changed the trajectory of an teenager’s life forever, which his now-adult friends are still reeling from.
In 2010, Sam Ballard’s life changed in the blink of an eye as he suffered immediate and tragic repercussions for eating a slug.
Yet shortly after eating the slimy creature, the keen rugby player’s central nervous system began to shut down.
As the invertebrate was infected with a parasite known as rat lungworm, Sam contracted a strand of meningitis, known as eosinophilic meningoencephalitis, which is severe but treatable.
Sam suffered an infection in his brain and fell into a coma in hospital for 420 days.
When he woke up, he was left paralyzed from the neck down, including all his limbs.
All he could do was control his breathing and eyelids, and his mom, Katie Ballard, became his full-time carer.
Sam tragically died in 2018 at the age of 28 due to medical complications from the incident.
His pal, Jimmy Galvin, recalled that fatal moment to The Project: “We were sitting over here having a bit of a red wine appreciation night, trying to act as grown ups and a slug came crawling across here.
“The conversation came up, ‘should I eat it?’ [and] off Sam went. Bang. That’s how it happened.”
Jimmy said he apologized to his friend for not stopping him from eating it.
When he did, he said Sam ‘started bawling his eyes out’.
Jimmy also shared a heartfelt message to others in hopes today’s teens won’t follow in his friend’s footsteps.
He said: “Just take care of your mates. Before you jump off a roof into pool or dare your mate to eat something stupid.
“It can have the worst consequences – not only on your mate and the rest of your friends, the rest of your life, just take care of each other.”
Sam’s family, however, have stressed they don’t blame Sam’s friends for what happened to him, telling the NZ Herald that the boys were ‘just being mates’.
“[Online trolls would say] the boys should be the ones paying for Sam to be looked after.
“How stupid that a kid does something like that and expects everybody to pay for it.
“It’s tough to fathom that there are people that can’t understand there is a very sick kid who has lost everything health-wise. His family have lost him, you know. And all the great times they should have had with him.”
Speaking at his funeral, Sam’s brother Joshua also said to his mourning friends: “We don’t want you to feel any guilt about what happened that night.
“Your friendship to Sam was extraordinary.”
