The Reason You Should Never Eat A Raw Snail

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The Reason You Should Never Eat A Raw Snail By Kristine Belonio Aug. 7, 2025 5:00 pm EST

In November 2018, an Australian man named Sam Ballard died after suffering complications from a parasitic worm infection that lasted more than half a decade. The infection initially put him in a 420-day coma. He was completely paralyzed when he woke up and needed 24/7 care for the remainder of his life. Eight years prior, a then-19-year-old Ballard ingested a slug as part of a drunken dare from his friends. Moments after swallowing the mollusk, he felt severe pain in his legs, and his body started to become weak. At the hospital, doctors discovered that Ballard had developed rat lungworm disease, which he got from the infected slug.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and In