Aussie Rugby player becomes paraplegic after eating a slug
n 2010 at a friend's party, strapping 19-year-old rugby player Sam Ballard swallowed a garden slug as a dare.
A group of young friends was sitting around at a table drinking red wine when a slug was produced and one of them said: "Eat it, I dare you."
Ballard swallowed the slug.
Prior to this, Ballard's mother Katie had thought her son as a "larrikin" (hooligan) but "invincible," that nothing could ever happen to him.