badbobby Loc: texas

In 2010, a teenage rugby player in Australia named Sam Ballard accepted an unusual dare at a party: swallow a live garden slug. The experience left him paralyzed and with significant brain damage, and on Friday (Nov. 2), Ballard died in a Sydney hospital at the age of 28.

The strange and sad case occurred because, along with the slug, Ballard had swallowed a parasite called Angiostrongylus cantonensis, commonly known as rat lungworm, which the slug likely picked up from rat droppings, according to the U.K.'s EveningStandard.

Rat lungworm infection can lead to bacterial meningitis, which may include symptoms such as headaches, nausea, vomiting, and "abnormal sensations" in the arms and legs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Typically, rat lungworm infections get better without treatment. But in some cases, serious complications can occur and cause severe disruption of the nervous system or even death, the CDC says. [8 Awful Parasite Infections That Will Make Your Skin Crawl]

In the days after swallowing the slug, Ballard developed pains in his legs and was hospitalized after spells of persistent dizziness and vomiting. Doctors diagnosed him with a rat lungworm infection, and he fell into a coma that lasted 420 days, Live Science previously reported.

After Ballard emerged from the coma, he was paralyzed from the neck down, had difficulty communicating and required 'round-the-clock care, according to the Independent.

Ballard's story made headlines earlier this year after medical funding used for his care and provided by the Australian government's National Disability Insurance Scheme was reduced by half; the government eventually reversed the decision following extensive media coverage and an appeal by Ballard's family, News.com reported.

People can avoid exposure to the rat lungworm parasite by avoiding eating raw or undercooked slugs and snails, frogs, land crabs, and freshwater shrimp, according to the CDC. Vegetables that may have come in contact with slugs or snails should be washed before being eaten raw, and people preparing raw slugs or snails should thoroughly clean their hands and utensils afterward, the CDC says.

Originally published on Live Science.

bahmer

Thats scary, but kids do stupid things, and some even live through them.

pafret Loc: Northeast

Snails are something I have never been tempted to eat. I was aware of their use as food items in ethnic cuisines from an early age but watching the slimy critters climbing out of the wicker baskets and trailing the slimy goo behind turned me off. Watching Julia Childs, many years later, preparing escargot confirmed this, when she finished and bluntly stated the only reason for making escargot was to sop up the garlic sauce with bread and drink a glass or ten of wine with it.

Seth

Another good reason to stick with my three main food groups: beef, pasta and more beef.

badbobby Loc: texas

throw some pork chops and sausage in there
and I'll join you
mashed potatoes would be nice

pafret Loc: Northeast

Gotta have sausage! I have about a thousand recipes for sausage and I try to make at least 2 new recipes every time I whip up a batch (40 pounds) of hot or sweet sausage.

badbobby Loc: texas

I always knowed you wuz a sausage lover

bahmer

Finding good German sausage is difficult and the same for
Italian sausage. Swedish cooking sausage is anther good one to eat.

badbobby Loc: texas

I like plain ol country made (American)sausage
dunno why sum sausages have to have furrin names

bahmer

Trace the lineage back of most all sausages here in America and
they all have roots back in the old countries of Europe. They ate
a lot of pork over there because pork was easy to raise and cheap
add a little beef or chicken to the pork with some spices and you have
everything from bologna to bratwurst and everything in between.

pafret Loc: Northeast

That is why you have to make your own. Finding recipes used to be impossible but a couple of years ago a switch got thrown somewhere and I now have a collection of around thirty books on making sausage, with thousands of recipes. Go on the internet and search for Len Poli, he has a web site with tons of sausage recipes from many nationalities and most are very good.

The Holy Grail of German Sausage Recipes is the Nuremburger Sausage. It is not only Denomination Controlled but its recipe is a State Secret. It has been so since the 1500's. I cannot find an adequate recipe to match the taste of the Nuremburger Sausages I used to eat when I was in Germany nor the Imported stuff I use to buy at insane prices here. I have come close, but no cigar. I believe it has to do with the pork available here in the States and the pork available in Europe. They didn't go insane with the fat phobia that caused the elimination of lard hogs and the substitution of lean hogs. Nothing tastes right, pork-chops, ham, bean soup with ham bones and meat shards have all gone flat.

badbobby Loc: texas

what do ya'll need with all them fancy recipes and names
jut gimme sum good ol country sausage with over easy eggs,coffee and hot bisquits and gravy
and you will have a contented man

pafret Loc: Northeast

I am cursed with a profound dislike of eating the same thing more than once or twice in a week. I dislike left-overs and I eat one meal of those and then they get chucked. Same thing goes for Sausage; I don't want to eat the same old, same old all the time. I keep trying new recipes and marking the good ones as keepers but I still have a mix of types even if I make old trusty recipes. Life is too short to drink flat beer, bad wine or eat the same damn thing day in and day out.

Seth

I don't know if it's still there, but when I was in Chicago a few years ago I used to go to an old family owned meat market by Lincoln Square that home made about every type of European sausage.

Another of the things I miss about that city, the ethnic neighborhoods don't seem to let themselves become extinguished by influxes of liberals.