A man who was left paralyzed after being dared to eat a slug by friends shared one last heartbreaking message before his tragic death.

The heart-shattering incident took place in 2010 when an Australian man named Sam Ballard engaged in what seemed like a harmless prank.

The then-19-year-old boy, who was a promising rugby player from Sydney, was enjoying a weekend get-together with friends when the group noticed a live slug in the garden and urged the teenager to eat it.

The decision had life-altering consequences for Ballard and ultimately led to his death.

One of his closest friends, Jimmy Galvin, recalled the moment Ballard consumed the insect during an interview with Australian outlet, The Project.

"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," Galvin explained. "The conversation came up, you know. ‘Should I eat it?’ And off Sam went. Bang. That’s how it happened."

At first, everything seemed fine, and the friends carried on as usual. But in the days following that fateful evening, the young man began to complain that he was experiencing intense pain in his legs.

He voiced his concerns to his mother, Katie, even suggesting that the pain might be linked to the slug he had eaten. However, she dismissed the idea, and said: "No one gets sick from that."

After a visit to the hospital, it was determined that Ballard had been infected by the parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis - a worm commonly found in rats but is also present in snails or slugs after they eat rodent droppings. 

The infection led to Sam contracting eosinophilic meningoencephalitis and lapsing into a coma for 420 days, suffering a severe infection of his brain. While this form of the disease is treatable, it left him paralyzed. He needed help eating and using the bathroom, and could only control his breathing and eyelids.

Ballard tragically passed away in 2018, eight years after the incident. According to The Washington Post, he uttered his final heartbreaking words to his mother which were: "I love you".

Ballard's mom once revealed that she has never blamed her son's friends for what happened.

"[Online trolls would say] the boys should be the ones paying for Sam to be looked after," she told NZ Herald. "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," she continued, adding that they were "just being mates".

Featured image credit: Sandra Standbridge / Getty

In a story-line that is more fitting of a children's book, a man claims that he was swallowed by a hippo while leading a kayak tour down the Zambezi River. But, even more astonishing that the act itself, Paul Templer has lived to tell the tale of the attack that left one dead and him with some serious injuries.

Paul Templer was a 27-year-old river guide when the incident occurred. According to him, he had led numerous excavations down the river and had survived several "half-hearted" attacks by a certain male hippo. However, while those near misses gave Templer an idea of the irate nature of the bull, he usually made sure that he avoided entering his territory when leading the tours.

But, during one trip down the river, the bull attack. The vicious assault was completely out of the blue and ended up with one of Paul's apprentices being killed and Templer being attacked after he had made an attempt to try and help his co-worker.

"I turned just in time to see Evans (the apprentice), who had been flung out of his boat, flying through the air," said Templer.

"His boat, with his two clients still in it, had been lifted half out of the water on the back of the huge bull hippo.

"I turned my boat and paddled furiously towards Evans. I reached over to grab his outstretched hand but as our fingers were about to touch, I was engulfed in darkness."

Talking to the Guardian, Templer describes the experience of being inside of the hippo.

“There was no transition at all, no sense of approaching danger. It was as if I had suddenly gone blind and deaf,” Templer recalled. He did not immediately understand what happened to him, with the tour guide saying:

"I was aware that my legs were surrounded by water, but my top half was almost dry. I seemed to be trapped in something slimy.

"There was a terrible, sulphurous smell, like rotten eggs, and a tremendous pressure against my chest. My arms were trapped but I managed to free one hand and felt around – my palm passed through the wiry bristles of the hippo’s snout.

"It was only then that I realised I was underwater, trapped up to my waist in his mouth."

Templer managed to wriggle free and made a bid for freedom, but the hippo attacked again, dragging him back underwater. He isn't sure how long he was under for, saying that “time passes very slowly when you’re in a hippo’s mouth."

The hippo spat Templer out and he was able to make his way to the surface, where his co-worker was awaiting him.

"I was a mess. My left arm was crushed to a pulp, blood poured from the wounds in my chest and when he examined my back, Mike discovered a wound so savage that my lung was visible.

"Luckily, he knew first aid and was able to seal the wounds in my chest with the wrapper from a tray of snacks, which almost certainly stopped my lungs from collapsing and saved my life."

Despite the horrifying experience and the fact that he tragically lost his apprentice, Templer bravely returned to his job as a guide. Attempts were made to kill the hippo, but he appeared to have gone into hiding. However, Templer believes that he met him two years later, in a similar stretch of water: "As we drifted past the stretch where the attack had taken place, a huge hippo lurched out of the water next to my canoe.

"I screamed so loudly that those with me said they'd never heard anything like it. He dived back under and was never seen again.

"I'd bet my life savings it was the same hippo, determined to have the final word."

So, if there's one thing to take from this, it's that while hippos may look cute, they're actually savage beasts who are intent on ripping you limb-from-limb. Yep, Hungry Hippos doesn't seem so innocent anymore, does it?

A man has been left rather red-faced and quite sore after a drunken mistake led to a pretty embarrassing trip to the hospital where doctors found something incredibly bizarre.

Most of us will have a drunken tale or two that we aren't massively proud of, but they're usually fairly harmless like texting an ex that you miss them or falling over at the bar.

But sometimes things can go a little too far and it's the next day when the alcohol has left your system that the consequences of the night before hit you like a train.

A 47-year-old Nepalese man had one of these experiences, resulting in him requiring surgery after a glass became lodged in his rectum.

According to the Journal of Nepal Medical Centre, the man arrived at the emergency department seeking help claiming that it had been lodged for three days.

The 47-year-old had been unable to have a bowel movement since the glass became stuck, but he was able to pass wind and unsurprisingly was in a lot of pain.

But how did the glass get there in the first place? After initially telling medical staff that it had found its way inside of him due to an accident, he eventually came clean and said that he got intoxicated and placed it up there himself for sexual gratification.

After a few unsuccessful attempts at retrieving it, he decided that he needed medical help and an X-ray revealed the full extent of the issue.

It would seem that doctors struggled to get a grasp on the glass too as it had become inverted, so they decided that opening the 47-year-old's abdomen in surgery was the only way.

Apologies if you're eating, but they used a technique called exploratory laparotomy and then attempted to "milk" the glass out by squeezing the small intestine.

Unfortunately, "milking" the glass also proved to be unsuccessful as the glass was pretty far up so doctors performed a sigmoid enterostomy which is where an incision is made to the intestine and doctors retrieved the glass.

Naturally, the man needed a fair amount of recovery time from the ordeal and he remained in the hospital for a further week as medical staff kept an eye on him.

Two months after the incident, he was declared fully recovered although it's presumed that the memory of the ordeal will live with him for a long time.

It goes without saying, drink responsibly for your safety and lower the risk of needing invasive surgery like this unfortunate man.

Featured image credit: Sally Anscombe / Getty

A lobster diver claims that he was swallowed and spat out by a humpback whale.

According to BBC News, fisherman Michael Packard says that he was diving off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts, when the marine mammal swam up to him and took him into its mouth for 30-40 seconds.

Amazingly, despite being swallowed whole by the underwater behemoth, the 56-year-old was only left with a dislocated knee after being spat out by the animal.

According to the WWF, humpback whales can grow up to 50ft (15m) in length and weigh about 36 tons (72,000lbs).

In a later interview with WBZ-TV News, Packard stated that he and his crewmate, captain Joe Francis, took their boat, the Ja'n J, on a voyage off Herring Cove on Friday morning with water visibility at about 20ft.

Packard stated that after donning his scuba gear and jumping into the water, he felt "this huge bump and everything went dark."

After initially believing that he had been bitten by a shark, Packard said: "Then I felt around, and I realized there was no teeth and I had felt, really, no great pain."

He continued: "I realized: 'Oh my God, I'm in a whale's mouth and he's trying to swallow me. This is it, I'm going die'."

Revealing what he was thinking while in the whale's mouth, Packard said: "One of the things that went through my mind was just, 'Oh, my God, what if he does swallow me, and here I am, I'm breathing air, and I'm going to breathe in this whale's mouth until my air runs out?'"

"Then all of a sudden he went up to the surface and just erupted and started shaking his head," Packard revealed. "I just got thrown in the air and landed in the water. I was free and I just floated there. I couldn't believe [it]. I'm here to tell it."

Meanwhile, Packard's crewmate had been desperately scanning the surface of the sea to try to locate him. When Captain Francis spotted the bubbles from Packard's oxygen respirator, he managed to find him again and hauled him back into their boat.

Francis later told WBZ-TV News: "I saw Mike come flying out of the water feet first with his flippers on and land back in the water.

"I jumped aboard the boat. We got him up, got his tank off. Got him on the deck and calmed him down and he goes: 'Joe, I was in the mouth of a whale.' He goes: ‘I can’t believe it, I was in the mouth of a whale Joe!'"

Having survived his ordeal, the real-life Jonah was then taken to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, where his injured leg was treated by medics.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels/Andrea Holien

A restaurant patron out in New Jersey was stunned and devastated to discover that there were nematodes - tiny worms - crawling around in a fish dish. Jim Guinee was dining with his girlfriend Jennifer Marzano at Stella Marina Bar and Restaurant in Middletown when he noticed something in her (half eaten) cod.

Posting a video of worms crawling around in half-eaten cod to Facebook after the fact, Guinee explained in said video how the fish incident was just the final straw in what had not been a great night overall at the Stella Marina Bar and Restaurant. Explaining that he'd been out celebrating his aunt's 80th birthday, Guinee simply said: "dinner has come to life."

"Not only did we sit through almost our entire dinner without drinks, but now, dinner has come to life. After eating half of your fish, that is not what you want to see."

This video caused quite the buzz on social media, getting shared over 2,000 times, and in response, the Stella Marina stopped serving the dish in question. They also posted to their Facebook page (though that post has since been deleted) apologizing for their role in the incident.

To see the nauseating footage for yourself, check out the video below:

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"One of our seafood purveyors did send us Saturday's cod and missed the small worms that were found by two of our guests, located in the center of their piece of fish. We immediately halted serving this dish. We also compensated the family of 8 generously and expressed our sincere concern and apologies that one our guests had anything less than an amazing experience at our restaurant."

But then, having attempted to build bridges, the restaurant then attempted to lash out at Guinee over social media, slamming him for putting them on blast for having worms in their foods. The Stella Marina Bar and Restaurant were reportedly "very surprised" at Guinee, who is an attorney, criticizing them online.

At the Disgusting Food Museum, however, people pay to have worms in their food: 

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"[We were] very surprised at the callousness and irresponsible reaction of an attorney of law to attempt to destroy our reputation & possible livelihoods due to something that could have happened to anyone, whether cooking at home or in a restaurant."

Guinee was upset to have been called out by the restaurant in such a manner, and let them know as much in a reply to their Facebook post. "If I were a plumber, would they have attacked me as 'a callous plumber?'" Guinee hit back. "It seemed like they were trying to divert attention rather than address the issue."

Although it can be very nauseating to find such a thing in a fish dish, nematodes and other worms can often be found in fish - especially wild ones. As the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization explains:

"No matter how carefully fish is inspected by processors, caterers and retailers, some worms will occasionally be discovered in fish by the consumer," the organization said. It added: "It should therefore be emphasized that the presence of worms in fish offered for sale does not imply carelessness or bad practice on the part of the processor or retailer."

The local Health Department decided not to comment on the incident.

This, however, is far from the first time that people have found something unsavory in their food.

One YouTube user got the shock of their life when a spider burst out of their banana: 

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So much for fruit being good for you, eh? That's enough to send anyone's heart rate through the roof - arachnophobe or not!

But if that wasn't enough to make you inspect your food a lot more closely for life, this definitely will be: 

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In short, if there's anything to be learned from these incidents, it's this: even with the best hygiene practices and will in the world, food preparation is subject to error, mistakes can and do happen when you are dealing with a substance that can rot - especially if it was once alive, and essentially turns into an insect buffet as it decays.

Have you ever found something unsavory in your food? Let us know in the poll below: 

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... Although, admittedly, that banana video isn't exactly doing much to promote veganism either. You can't win!