Suit blames hamster for 3 deaths

BOSTON - A woman whose husband died after receiving a liver transplant infected with a rodent virus is suing PetSmart Inc., claiming the chain should have warned customers that hamsters can carry the virus.

The federal lawsuit alleges that Thomas Magee, 54, and two other organ recipients died after transplants from a woman who had contracted a virus from a hamster she bought at a PetSmart store in Warwick, R.I.

Bruce Richardson, a spokesman for the Phoenix-based chain, would not comment on the lawsuit yesterday but said the virus is rare.

"It's not a common disease in pets. It's not something that's tested routinely by us or others," Richardson said.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court last week, said a pathology report on Magee's autopsy lists the cause of death as lymphocytic choriomeningitis, a viral infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

The virus, which is found in house mice, hamsters and other rodents, usually causes only flu-like symptoms in humans, but can be serious and even fatal in people with compromised immune systems.

In May 2005, the Rhode Island Health Department confirmed that three people died after receiving organs that were infected with the rodent virus: Magee; a double-lung recipient from Massachusetts, and a kidney transplant recipient from Rhode Island.

In her lawsuit, Nancy Magee says that PetSmart had a duty to warn its customers that hamsters could carry the virus and that people with weakened immune systems could die from it. *