I can’t help it. I know it’s not funny. I know it’s not a joke. But ‘death by hamster? just sounds funny to me.
I am bad.
I’m going to Hell. But, I can’t help it. In 2005, I remember reading about people who died because they received donated organs infected with some sort of yucky hamster disease. I think the catchy headline was, in fact, Death by Hamster. (Damn, I just snickered again. Hades, here I come.)
I just went on line and found out, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) the leading causes of death in the world are: Ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections and chronic obstructive lung disease. I looked all down the list, hamster — nor any rodent — cause was listed. I did see there was a woman killed by a lion in South Africa last week.
And, for some reason this weekend a theory I have heard about for the last few years about cats has clawed its way back into the news.
Researchers are saying a parasite ‘excreted by cats in their feces? called Toxoplasma gondii can make you go crazy and some researchers say the brain parasite may be to blame up to a million deaths a year! This may explain why crazy cat ladies are crazy. Moral of this story, keep the kitty litter box clean.
* * *
I am not making fun of useless wastes of life, because some numbskull made a mistake or some company valued money over humanity. So, back to the hamster story.
The actual circumstances surrounding hamster deaths are sad. How and what did they die from? Read on.
According to a report from The Boston Herald of May 24, 2005 ‘Three critically ill patients — including two from the Bay State — died from what they thought were lifesaving transplants because the organs they received were infected by a virus transmitted by the donor’s pet hamster, health officials said . . .
‘Four people — two from Massachusetts and two from Rhode Island — underwent transplant surgery on April 10 and 11, after receiving the organs from a woman who died from an embolic stroke.
‘The Rhode Island woman’s organs were tested — and cleared — for several infectious diseases but not for lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, or LCMV, a viral infection she got from an infected hamster she bought three weeks earlier at Petsmart in Warwick, R.I.?
* * *
Recently, I was asked by a wonderfully curious mind, ‘What I would do if I knew only had one year to live??
I responded thusly, ‘I would find as many people who have touched my life and contact them . . . thank them, forgive them, make amends to them. I would see more than often those I love. I would not travel far, because I would want to be near them. I would walk in the woods and the back roads and see. I would lay down in fields, wade in streams and write poetry. I would look for the beauty in everything I sense. I would give my house to somebody who needed it. On my last day I would have a party for those I love . . .?
Her follow up to my response was something like, ‘What’s the difference if you know you are dying or not?? I had no good answer.
* * *
At times, I have heard folks discuss how they want to die. Most folks chuckle and throw out, ‘Peacefully in my sleep.? Some simply say, ‘Quickly and painlessly.? I have heard some testosterone pumped exclaim, ‘In battle.?
I even heard, ‘By drowning in a vat of beer.?
I have never heard of death by hamster.
Personally, I don’t like thinking, let alone talking, about death.
It is not in my scope of interpersonal communication topics. I mean, I feel bad when folks die. I feel sad when someone I know, and love, dies. I feel pained when I learn of people being killed in a disaster or in war.
I just don’t think or dwell on it. There is too much to think about when it comes to life and the land of the living. There’s a wife to love. Kids to raise, bills to pay, home repairs to be made . . . you get the picture.
Well, dangblabit! Death never was a part of my thinking until this darned story. Here’s more from The Globe article:
‘The only other known incident of LCMV-infected organs causing a death occurred in Wisconsin in 2003.
‘Humans become infected with the virus when they come in contact with rodent urine, feces or saliva. In healthy people, LCMV usually only causes flu-like symptoms.
‘But organ recipients get drugs that suppress their immune system to help prevent organ rejection. The downside, officials said, is that they are more vulnerable to infectious disease. Officials would not identify the donor or victims, citing privacy laws.?
* * *
Death is a natural state of living, I guess. It happens to the best of us. Might as well grin and make fun of it. Sue me for being insensitive, it doesn’t matter, remember I am going to Hell.