Reflecting on that fateful evening, Ballard’s friend Jimmy Galvin shared with 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.”
When he finally woke up, he was no longer a teenager. He found out about the horrific effects the parasite had on his body.
This is what caused him to fall into that lengthy coma, which ultimately left him with significant brain damage.
Sadly, Ballard needed round-the-clock care from his mother and spent his life in a wheelchair until he passed away in November 2018 at the age of 29.
During his funeral in 2018, his brother Joshua addressed Sam’s friends directly, saying, “We don’t want you to feel any guilt about what happened that night.”
He went on to add, “Your friendship to Sam was extraordinary.”
