Apr 9, 2008 11:38 am US/Eastern
Pet Store Hamster Blamed For Man's Death
Wife Now Filing Lawsuit Against Store That Sold The Rodent
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Images
A Whitman woman claims a diseased hamster killed her husband, and now she wants the pet store that sold the rodent to pay.
Nacy Magee, 51, is filing a lawsuit against Phoenix-based PetSmart, Inc., claiming negligence.
Magee says her 54-year-old husband, Thomas, died after undergoing a liver transplant.
According to the suit, the donated liver came from a woman who contracted
lymphocytic choriomeningitis from a hamster she bought at a Warwick, Rhode Island PetSmart in 2005. The donor died after suffering a stroke that same year.
Magee claims her husband died because the liver he received was infected with the rodent-borne disease. Five days after the transplant, which was performed at Mass. General Hospital, Magee's husband developed a high fever and began to bleed internally. According to Magee, one of his lungs collapsed.
He died about one month after the transplant.
The suit filed against PetSmart also alleges two other people also died after receiving organs from the same donor who bought the hamster.
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