On Friday , a 28 - year - old man from Sydney passed forth from complications of a rat lungworm contagion eight year after he contracted the microscopic leech by eat a common garden slug on a dare .
harmonize to the Australian outletNews.com , Sam Ballard had been living with pregnant brainpower damage sustain when the lungworm , a type of nematode recognise asAngiostrongylus cantonensis , migrated from his digestive tract to his fundamental nervous system .
But if they terminate up in a human bowel instead , third - stage larva can wreak mayhem trying to orient themselves . In cases where theA. cantonensisremain in the digestive piece of land , an incendiary disease with symptom similar to appendicitis may be trigger .
In other cases , the louse " can get misplace , and it will go to the brain , and it ’ll stay there , " Heather Stockdale Walden , an adjunct professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathology at the University of Florida , toldCNN . " When it gets to the brain , you’re able to haveeosinophilic meningitis . " This shape necessitate firing of the membranes that surround the spinal cord and brain .
Australian news showThe Sunday Project , which first brought Ballard ’s plight to public attention in 2017 ( when the family ’s health care funding had been strap ) , reported that the young military personnel began experiencing symptoms of eosinophilic meningitis just a few days after exhaust the slug . The first signboard was grievous pain in his stage , which prompted him to go to the local infirmary . He then decrease into a coma for 420 days . During this period , and despite belligerent treatment , excitation from the immune response to the worm(s ) destroy tissue in Ballard ’s brain . He woke up partially paralyzed from the cervix down and experienced difficultness communicating .
In the year since , he regained partial branch control through strong-arm therapy , and continued to spend quality clip with his Quaker and female parent , who tell News.com that “ he understand ” everything bump around him . deplorably , however , he continued to require 24/7 upkeep until his death .
If you or a loved one experience the symptoms of meningitis – head ache , nausea , vomiting , and abnormal sensations in the weapons system and legs – attempt aesculapian attention right away . To avoid exposureto rat lungworm , do n’t consume crude or undercooked terrestrial mollusks and crab , or fresh water shrimp , and soundly rinse all raw yield and veg .
