We make decisions all day, every day over the course of our lives.
Some require lots of time and contemplation,
and others are made quickly because they seem inconsequential.
But sometimes, these spur-of-the-moment decisions are the ones with the biggest impact.
As always, viewer discretion is advised.
[music]
In 2010, Sam was a popular 19-year-old rugby player with a bright future.
He was known to be outgoing, and he and his friends were permanent fixtures
on the North Sydney party scene.
Sam could get a bit rowdy when he drank too much,
but for the most part, he was just a normal guy who everyone liked being around.
And although Sam was known to party hard on occasion,
his mom was confident that he could take care of himself if push came to shove,
so she didn't worry too much even when he stayed out late.
One evening, Sam and his friends were hanging out at an outdoor get-together
and drinking some red wine and having a great time,
when one of his friends noticed a garden slug crawling across the grass.
Right on cue, Sam's friends started joking around and daring each other to eat the slug.
And Sam, being the character that he was, walked right over to it, picked up the slug,
gave it a once-over, and then popped it into his mouth.
Thankfully, by then, his taste buds had already been dulled by the red wine,
so the slug went down without a fight.
As soon as he swallowed it, his friends laughed and congratulated him,
and the night continued on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Unfortunately, this split-second decision would be a huge mistake.
And a few days later, Sam woke up one morning, and was incredibly dizzy.
This was quickly followed by him getting extremely nauseous,
and then experiencing intense pain in both of his legs.
Because of how quickly all the symptoms came on,
his mom hoped that he was just coming down with the flu,
but she secretly worried that he had multiple sclerosis like his father.
And then rather than getting better after a few days like you'd expect from the flu,
Sam's condition continued to worsen.
Eventually, his mom decided to play it safe and take him to the hospital
to see if she could get him diagnosed.
Pretty quickly, and to his mom's relief, multiple sclerosis was ruled out,
but Sam's doctors still weren't sure why his health was deteriorating so rapidly.
Then, after asking him to go through his last couple of days,
he told him about how he'd eaten the slug at the party,
and right away, things started to become a little more clear,
and doctors had an idea of what was wrong.
Soon enough, lab tests confirmed the doctor's suspicions.
Sam had been infected by rat lungworms that have been passed on from the slug.
Rat lungworms are these tiny snake-like parasites
that are common in Australia and Southeast Asia.
These parasites got their name because they often congregate
in the lungs and the other organs of the host, which are generally rodents.
They can then be passed onto intermediate hosts like slugs, frogs,
and other animals when they come into contact with
or consume rodent excrement, which they frequently do.
And in rare instances, these animals can transfer the parasitic worms to humans like Sam.
The one he'd eaten had probably consumed rodent droppings shortly before he consumed it.
And on top of that, as disgusting as the rat lungworms are,
it's the larvae that do the most damage.
Because they're smaller, they can burrow into their host's intestinal lining more easily,
and from there, they typically spread through the nervous and circulatory systems,
and onto the liver, lungs, brain, eyes, and spinal cords.
In most cases, the symptoms associated with a rat lungworm infection are mild and flu-like,
but in rare instances, they're capable of causing far more serious complications
like convulsions, meningitis, and coma that can eventually lead to death.
And although most cases go undiagnosed, the parasites can be detected
by analyzing cerebral spinal fluid through a spinal tap.
Tragically though, even when they are detected,
there aren't any specific treatments that have been proven to be particularly effective.
Even worse, although the parasites don't reproduce in humans,
they have a tendency to make their way into an area like the eyes,
and then live out their full lifespan, causing damage the entire time.
In Sam's case, and like many others, he was completely resistant to treatment,
and soon enough, he contracted severe meningitis and slipped into a coma.
As the days turned to weeks, and then to months,
doctors weren't sure if Sam would ever wake up.
And then a full year went by with no sign of Sam waking up,
until one day, his eyes opened, and he regained consciousness
for the first time in over 400 days.
During this time, Sam's friends and family had stopped regularly to see him,
and everyone was ecstatic when he finally woke up,
but this was quickly followed by the realization that Sam would never be the same as before.
One friend recalled the first time he saw Sam struggled to smile,
and another when Sam struggled to raise his arm to shake his hand.
Almost every time his friends visited, they repeatedly apologized for their part in the dare,
and no matter how hard they tried, sometimes, they just couldn't hold back tears.
Despite being out of a coma, Sam had become wheelchair-bound and bedridden,
and was unable to eat without a feeding tube.
On top of needing to be kept alive by various medical devices,
he had frequent and violent seizures.
Nonetheless, everybody held out hope that over time, and with a little luck,
he may be able to walk again, and possibly even regain some of his independence.
But Sam's progress ultimately stalled,
and round-the-clock hospital care was both required and costing the family a fortune.
His mother and friends were able to raise funds that helped offset
some of the mounting costs, but it was never enough.
And around the same time, his mother battled back and forth with their insurance
to get Sam's medical costs covered, but in the end, it didn't matter anyway.
In November of 2018, Sam's eight-year battle ended when he was just 27 years old.
His death was obviously devastating to his friends and family,
and shortly before he died, he was able to tell his mother one last time
that he loved her, before passing away.
Looking back on the incident that caused the tragedy, Sam's mom chalked it up
to a silly mistake made by his otherwise well-intentioned group of friends.
Unfortunately, that split-second decision
had horrible consequences that nobody could have foreseen.
Adelir Antônio de Carli was born on February 8th, 1967 in Pelotas, Brazil.
Not much is known about Adelir's childhood or family life,
but after entering priesthood as an adult, he took an interest
in tackling the countless injustices he saw around him nearly every day.
Many of which were perpetrated by the wealthy citizens and public officials
against the most downtrodden and vulnerable members of society.
And as a man of the church, Adelir couldn't just turn a blind eye to all this exploitation.
Instead, he became an outspoken advocate for the voiceless and oppressed
who were oftentimes part of his congregation.
By the mid-2000s, Adelir's efforts had exposed a few of the most heinous offenders
and improved living and working conditions for many of his parishioners.
At the same time, he still wanted to make more of an impact,
and he reasoned that some sort of publicity stunt was just what he needed
to make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time.
Eventually, he decided on and began designing an unorthodox flying machine in late 2007.
Consisting of 600 helium-filled balloons tethered to a rickety chair,
Adelir hoped that it would carry him safely from Ampére, Brazil to San Antonio in Argentina,
which, technically, was only a distance of 22 miles (35.4 km),
but obviously, it's still pretty insane, considering what he would be using to fly there.
Some people think it's possible that Adelir was inspired by American, Larry Walters,
also known as "Lawnchair Larry", who made a 45-minute flight
between San Pedro and Long Beach, California in a similar craft in the summer of 1982,
and whose launcher ultimately flew to more than 16,000 feet (4,877 m).
Although Larry eventually lost altitude and crashed into electrical lines,
he survived the ordeal, and became an international sensation almost overnight.
Then, like his American counterpart, Adelir took to the skies on January 13th, 2008,
and surprisingly landed without incident near San Antonio just four hours later.
This maiden flight was a pretty impressive feat,
considering how hastily it had been planned and executed.
And this success gave him the confidence
to undertake a far longer and more ambitious flight.
If Adelir succeeded, he'd not only set a new record for the longest balloon flight,
but he'd also be able to use his newfound stardom to generate funds,
which he planned on using to build a rest area for port truckers,
which would double as a church.
Now, despite the first flight being so successful,
Adelir didn't take preparations for a second attempt lightly.
Not only was he already an experienced skydiver and outdoorsman,
he'd even planned on earning his pilot's license a few years before.
In addition to that, he enrolled in climbing and wilderness survival courses
before the second flight, in case he crashed in the jungle prior to reaching his destination.
Likewise, Adelir spared no expense when it came to gear.
Although he planned on being in the air for just a few days tops,
his equipment included insulated waterproof coveralls, mobile and satellite phones,
a personal flotation device, and enough food and drinking water for about five days.
He also had a parachute in case of balloons burst or began leaking helium,
and a GPS device which could pinpoint his location
to keep those monitoring the situation on the ground, aware of his progress.
In addition to drumming up public support and making sure the event
was covered by as many media outlets as possible,
Adelir spent the last few days before the flight going over his route
and putting the finishing touches on his new flying machine,
which was made up of a thousand multicolored helium-filled party balloons,
attached to a lightweight metal chair.
If all went according to plan, his journey would take him from the port city of
Paranaguá inland, to the town of Ampére near the Argentine border.
Then, on the morning of April 20th, 2008, Adelir was finally ready to take flight.
Surrounded by well-wishers and local authorities who'd been tasked
with monitoring the stunt, he put on his crisp white flight suit, shiny red helmet,
said goodbye, and began ascending into the sky.
Though it's anyone's guess what was going through his mind,
his confidence likely grew as the first few hours passed uneventfully,
and he rose to nearly 20,000 feet.
He checked in with watchers on the ground at regular intervals,
but then things took a turn on an early call when he asked for help figuring out
where he was, because he couldn't figure out how to operate his GPS unit.
Another sign that things weren't going according to plan,
came when he asked a military observer
to make sure search and rescue personnel knew where he was at all times.
Before ending the call, he assured everybody that he was okay,
apart from being a bit colder than expected.
Unfortunately though, by then, he must have known that
the winds that were supposed to guide him westward across Brazil,
had actually pushed him to the east, and out over the Atlantic Ocean.
In fact, his last known location was more than 10 miles off the Brazilian coast
in the vicinity of the Tamboretes islands.
That was the last time anyone heard from Adelir.
All communication with him stopped by the evening of the 20th,
and those on the ground were split on where he was, and if he was dead or alive.
While some people thought there was a good chance
that he'd been blown back on course and would be found alive and well,
others thought that he'd gone down in the ocean and probably drowned.
However, Adelir was relatively young and in shape,
and survival wasn't out of the question since he had food and water,
a personal flotation device, and insulated clothing.
The following day, Brazilian Navy vessels and aircraft were called in to scour the area,
but by the 29th, they'd only found a few deflated balloon fragments
along the coast, north of his point of departure.
The search continued for over a week,
but was officially called off just nine days after Adelir took off.
And other than a few colorful balloons, no additional evidence was found.
Tragically, on July 4th, 2008, workers on an oil rig
discovered the bottom half of a human body, strapped to a chair,
and surrounded by partially deflated balloons.
Needless to say, the remains were assumed to be Adelir,
and this was confirmed by comparing DNA taken from the cadaver,
to a sample taken from Adelir's brother.
His family, followers, and parishioners were heartbroken,
although they did at least have some closure.
They could take comfort in the fact that he died for a worthwhile cause.
But, as is often the case, when these types of stunts end in disaster,
not everyone shares this positive outlook.
In fact, the instructor who'd kicked Adelir out of flight school
a few years earlier, had different take on his death.
He said that it came as no surprise that Adelir had tried such a dangerous stunt,
because during his short time in flight school,
he constantly bragged about how his faith would protect him,
and this caused him to be careless.
By early 2007, 28-year-old Jen was already a married mother of three.
Her youngest daughter was just 11 years old,
and the family lived a pleasant middle-class existence in Rancho Cordova, California.
Jen worked at a radiology clinic in Sacramento,
and was well liked by her coworkers and supervisors.
And like thousands of Californians who lived and worked in and around the state's capital,
she regularly listened to a popular radio show called the Morning Rave,
on her way to the clinic.
Known locally as "The End", the station was actually owned by a large media conglomerate,
headquartered more than 2,700 miles away in Philadelphia.
Jen was usually just a casual listener, but that changed during the holiday season,
when the station began advertising for an upcoming contest
it dubbed "Hold Your Wee for a Wii".
The rules were simple:
contestants would have three hours to consume as much water as they could,
and whoever drank the most would win a Nintendo Wii video game console.
But there was one big caveat.
Trips to the bathroom were strictly prohibited.
In fact, urination meant instant disqualification.
Contestants would just have to hold it as long as they could.
So, on the morning of Friday, January 12th, 2007,
Jen and 17 other eager contestants arrived at the radio station,
and after a brief explanation of the rules,
they were taken to a room and seated at a large table.
At the same time, the station's morning DJs were busy describing the scene
for those who were listening at home, at work, and in their vehicles.
The contest officially got underway when each contestant was given an eight-ounce
or 240-milliliter bottle of water, and told they had two minutes to drink it.
In the beginning, two minutes was more than enough to drink that small amount of water,
but soon enough, and as they drank more and more water, these bottles became a struggle.
The more they drank, the more bloated they felt, and the more painful the contest became.
And the empty bottles piled up around them.
Unfortunately, only 30 minutes into the contest,
everyone started to realize that they had a full three hours of this.
They all tried to ignore the discomfort and soldier on,
but as anyone knows who's ever had a full bladder, this was increasingly difficult to do.
At one point, Jen said out loud that it was beginning to hurt,
and in response to her comment, the DJ joked that her distended stomach made her look pregnant.
By then, the contest hadn't even reached the halfway mark, and soon enough,
the radio station employees began giving each person nearly twice as much water as before.
Incredibly, despite Jen being smaller than some of her competitors,
she managed to stay near the top of the pack in terms of how much water she drank.
For a while, it even looked like she might end up winning the contest
and bring home a brand-new Wii for her kids.
As the DJs and thousands of listeners were enjoying the seemingly harmless contest,
calls started to come in that were warning the radio station,
that what they were doing was actually very dangerous.
At least one of these callers was a nurse,
but participants weren't able to hear these calls.
If they had, some of them might have reconsidered what they were doing.
Either way, the DJ assured listeners that they were aware of the risks,
and that the radio station had covered its bases
by requiring each contestant to sign a liability waiver.
So, the contest and the casual banter between the DJs, callers,
and participants continued on as before,
and when it was all said and done, Jen had consumed nearly two gallons
or seven and a half liters of water.
Sadly, this was only enough for a second-place finish,
for which she got two tickets to an upcoming Justin Timberlake concert.
Ordinarily, a person might be happy to have come in second place,
but by then, Jen was extremely nauseous and had a pounding headache,
which was obviously due to the amount of water she had consumed.
Even worse, she was scheduled to work that afternoon,
so after she claimed her prize, she left the station right away.
Accounts given by other contestants seemed to indicate
that Jen wasn't dealing with just a normal headache or a mildly upset stomach either.
But for whatever reason, nobody bothered to ask how she was or offer her help.
So, eventually, she left the station to head to work,
and then on the drive to work, her condition worsened to such an extent,
that she ended up having to call her office and tell her supervisor
that she wasn't going to make it in.
During the call, Jen repeatedly told her what a horrible headache she had,
and was to the point of tears during the entire conversation.
That was the last time anyone spoke to Jen.
She would manage to make it home safely, but tragically,
her mother discovered her lifeless body in the bathroom of her home five hours later.
An autopsy later revealed that Jen had died of hyponatremia
from acute water intoxication.
This results from excess water diluting the electrolytes in your body,
which need to be kept in a certain range for your body to function correctly.
Following the news of Jen's death, and in the aftermath of the contest,
10 radio station employees were filed almost immediately after the incident.
Shortly after that as well, Jen's husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit
and sought damages from the station for Jen's death.
During the trial, jurors heard troubling and often conflicting accounts
of what transpired during the contest.
Her husband's attorney called in the kidney expert to inform jurors
about the effects of acute water intoxication,
and specifically, how it could disrupt the body's delicate balance of electrolytes,
to such a degree that it could kill someone.
During the trial, it was clear that both sides agreed
that Jen's death had been caused by hyponatremia,
but they couldn't have been further apart when it came to blame and liability.
The media company's attorney supposedly argued that Jen's death was unforeseeable,
while also simultaneously asserting that she should have been aware
that drinking too much water was potentially dangerous,
and that she bore some of the responsibility for her own actions.
This obviously didn't sit well with jurors.
After all, if the radio station couldn't have foreseen Jen's death,
how could they claim that she should have?
In addition to that, the jurors couldn't understand why the DJs hadn't warned the contestants
after receiving multiple calls from concerned listeners.
Another damning discovery came later in the trial when jurors learned
that the contest hadn't even gone to the company's legal department
for its official stamp of approval.
If it had, it's reasonable to assume that the contest wouldn't have taken place at all.
At the very least, the radio station may have chosen
to have a medical professional onsite in case anyone got sick.
In any case, after closing arguments, the jury deliberated for approximately two weeks,
and ultimately found the media company liable
for the actions of its employees and Jen's death.
Jen's family was eventually awarded 16 million dollars in damages.
In a post-trial interview with Good Morning America,
her husband's attorney said that Jen acted as any normal person would've
in the same circumstances.
In other words, it was reasonable for her to assume that the radio station had done its due diligence.
Sadly, they hadn't. And what might have been a fun and rewarding experience,
turned into a life-changing nightmare for Jen's family.
Hello everyone, and welcome to Scary Interesting.
If you enjoyed this video, this is part of a series,
so you may wanna check out the other videos in the series.
If you wanna support the channel, give this video a like,
and if you have a story suggestion, feel free to send it to the email found in the description,
or to the Scary Interesting subreddit.
Thank you all so much for watching, and hopefully, I will see you in the next one.