A mother-of-two has died after being bitten by her hamster.
The 38-year-old collapsed at a health center near her home in Spain, where she went with her two children, aged 17 and 11, to receive medical attention after the reported bite.
An autopsy is expected to determine whether the incident contributed to her death.
The unnamed woman, of Colombian nationality, fell to the ground at around 10:30 pm on Friday evening at a health center in the Spanish city of Villarreal, on the east coast, north of Valencia.
The respected local newspaper Mediterraneo said she went to an emergency room there after being bitten by the family’s rodent.
It is believed she was just a few feet from the front door when she collapsed.
A mother-of-two died after being bitten by her hamster. The 38-year-old collapsed at a health center in Spain (pictured)
Respected local newspaper Mediterraneo said the woman was on her way to an emergency room there after being bitten by the family’s rodent.
Health workers rushed out to help her and tried to revive her but were unable to save her life.
Police cordoned off the area before her body was taken away.
It is not clear whether the autopsy took place, but the results are not normally made public in Spain. A local court is coordinating an ongoing investigation into her death.
The National Police in Castellon, which includes the provincial capital Villarreal, was not available for comment this morning.
Rarely, rabies and bacterial infections can be transmitted through a bite from an infected hamster.
Owners who have been bitten are advised to wash the wound to reduce the chance of any problems.
There have been reports in the past of people with allergies being taken to hospital with severe breathing problems after being bitten by hamsters.
In May 2007, a man was admitted to hospital in Redditch, Worcestershire, after reportedly going into anaphylactic shock following a bite.
Paramedic Stuart Philp was quoted after the scare, which occurred when the man’s seven-year-old daughter removed him from his cage at their home near Evesham, as saying: ‘It was a highly unusual situation. allergic reaction, but we didn’t know it was from a hamster until we got there.
‘Calls for allergic reactions are quite common, but they are usually wasp or bee stings or sometimes people are allergic to medicines.
“When the crew went in, the man was unconscious. He was still breathing, but the situation was clearly life-threatening.
‘It is known that he is allergic to penicillin, so he has medication at home.
‘He received adrenaline injections in the form of Epi-pens, which many people with allergies carry.
‘Normally he only had to take one, but he had taken three and they had had no effect.
‘People react in different ways to different chemicals. It’s hard to say why this man reacted the way he did. It’s just a case of a certain hamster and a certain man – it’s very bad luck.’
West Midlands Ambulance Service said at the time: ‘The man had a severe and severe reaction to the bite.
‘If you have been diagnosed with the risk of serious reactions, it is very important that you and your family know what to do.
‘The man’s actions in administering drugs to himself may have played a significant role in his recovery.’
Wendy Barry, then secretary of the British Hamster Association, responded by saying: ‘I have been keeping hamsters for 20 years and I have never heard of this scenario in this country.
‘A person’s immune system would have to be very compromised for there to be such drastic consequences.
‘Hamsters are not normally carriers of diseases that can affect humans. In fact, a hamster is more likely to catch something from a human.’