A woman tragically died on her way to the hospital after being bitten by a pet hamster.
The 38-year-old mother collapsed and passed away following a bite from one of her children’s hamsters.
She was outside a health center near her residence in Spain with her two children, aged 17 and 11, when the incident occurred.
The woman, who has not been publicly identified in local reports, is believed to be from Colombia and was living in Villarreal, near Valencia, with her family.
The woman was reportedly on her way to seek medical treatment for the hamster bite when she collapsed around 10:30 pm on October 11, as reported by the local newspaper, Mediterraneo.
Tragically, she fell just a few feet from the medical center’s entrance.
Staff rushed to help her, attempting resuscitation, but she could not be saved. Police secured the area before her body was taken away.
An autopsy is to be conducted to determine if the hamster bite played any role in her death.
In Spain, autopsy findings are seldomly published, but a local court is overseeing an investigation into her death.
Although rare, diseases like rabies and bacterial infections can potentially be transmitted from hamsters to humans through bites. It remains unclear if this was the case in this situation.
Severe allergies to animals like rodents are also rare but have been documented.
In 2007, a man from Evesham in the UK experienced anaphylactic shock after a hamster bite and had to be hospitalized in Redditch, Worcestershire.
Paramedic Stuart Philip described it as an unfortunate incident, noting the man was lucky to survive.
He remarked: “It was a highly unusual situation. We received an initial call about an allergic reaction but only discovered it was from a hamster upon arrival.
“Different people react differently to various chemicals. It’s hard to determine why this man reacted this way. It was just a specific hamster and a specific man – very unfortunate.”
At the time, the West Midlands Ambulance Service stated: “The man suffered a serious and severe reaction to the bite.
“If you’re known to have severe reactions, it’s crucial for you and your family to know how to respond.
“Administering medication to himself likely played a vital role in his recovery.”
Wendy Barry, then-secretary of the British Hamster Association, commented: “Having kept hamsters for 20 years, I’ve never heard of such a case in this country.
“An individual’s immune system would have to be extremely compromised for such severe outcomes.
“Typically, hamsters don’t carry diseases harmful to humans. In fact, there’s a greater chance of a hamster contracting something from a human.”