BOSTON – A widow is suing Petsmart Inc, saying that her husband died after a liver transplant that was contaminated by a sick hamster sold by the largest U.S. specialty pet retailer to the organ donor.

The suit, filed in Massachusetts Superior Court in February, seeking unspecified damages, moved up to U.S. District Court in Boston this week.

In papers filed in the state court, Nancy Magee charged that a Petsmart in Warwick, Rhode Island in March 2005 sold a hamster infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, or LCMV, to a woman not named in the suit.

That woman later died of stroke and her liver was implanted in Magee’s husband, Thomas, in April 2005. A month later, Thomas Magee died of LCMV.

Two other people who received organs from this woman died and one became seriously ill, the suit says, noting that medical authorities later tracked down the hamster in question and found it to be infected with LCMV.

Petsmart spokeswoman Jessica Douglas said the Phoenix, Arizona-based company does not comment on pending litigation.

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