A 38-year-old woman collapsed and died after being bitten by one of her children's pet hamsters.
The mother-of-two reportedly collapsed while outside a health centre near her home in Spain while accompanied by her two children, a 17-year-old and an 11-year-old.
The woman has not been identified in local media, but is believed to be a Colombian national who was living with her family on the east coast Spanish city of Villarreal, north of Valencia.
The woman is believed to have been on her way to receive medical attention for the hamster bite when she fell around 10.30pm on October 11, according to local paper Mediterraneo. Tragically, the woman was only a few feet from the front door of the medical centre when she collapsed.
Autopsy to be Conducted to Determine Cause of Death
Staff then rushed out to attempt to resuscitate her, but were unable to save her life. Police cordoned of the zone before the woman's body was taken away.
An autopsy is expected to be carried out to determine whether the hamster bite contributed to her death. In Spain, autopsy results are rarely made public, but a local court is coordinating an ongoing investigation into her death.
Rabies-infected Hamster or Allergy to Rodents?
In rare cases, diseases such as rabies and bacterial infections can pass from hamsters to humans through a bite. However, it is still unclear whether this is what occurred here.
The woman may have also had a severe allergy to animals, such as rodents, and the bite may have triggered a reaction. Although a rare occurrence, it has happened in the past.
In 2007, a man from the Evesham, England, went into anaphylactic shock following a hamster bite, and had to be admitted to a hospital in Redditch, Worcestershire.
In 2004, a man in Japan died after being bitten by his pet hamster. A post-mortem found that the man, in his 40s, had suffered a fatal bout of asthma in an allergic reaction to a protein in the animal's saliva.
