Shortly after consuming the creature, Sam, an avid rugby player, experienced a shutdown of his central nervous system.
The slug was a carrier of a parasite called rat lungworm, which led to Sam contracting eosinophilic meningoencephalitis, a severe but treatable form of meningitis.
Sam’s brain became infected, putting him in a coma for 420 days.
Upon awakening, he was paralyzed from the neck down, unable to move any of his limbs.
His only voluntary actions were breathing and blinking, and his mother, Katie Ballard, took on the role of his primary caregiver.
In 2018, at age 28, Sam tragically passed away due to complications from the incident.
His friend, Jimmy Galvin, recounted the incident 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 expressed regret for not preventing Sam from eating the slug, which prompted an emotional response from Sam.
Jimmy also conveyed a poignant message to others, hoping to prevent similar tragedies among today’s youth.
He advised: “Just take care of your mates. Before you jump off a roof into a 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 has been clear that they do not hold his friends responsible for the incident, as they told the NZ Herald, emphasizing that the boys were simply “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.”
At Sam’s funeral, his brother Joshua addressed his friends: “We don’t want you to feel any guilt about what happened that night.”
“Your friendship to Sam was extraordinary.”