A man has experienced a terrifying moment after almost dying when his pet hamster clamped down on his hand and would not let go.
Nathan Halliday, 34, from Kirkby, Merseyside, sat down peacefully with Mochi, his Syrian hamster, when she suddenly attacked him and left him for dead.
He then experienced a anaphylactic shock and moments after she bit him Nathan’s body swelled up, he couldn’t breathe and was covered in hives.
His partner Rebecca Kidd struggled to get Mochi off him but once she did she thought the worst was about to happen so called 999.
Mochi had been looking frail for the last few days before this incident and once she was taken off Nathan she took her last two breaths and died.
In the ambulance Nathan was on death’s door and was given two shots of adrenaline, an antihistamine and put on oxygen.
Nathan said: ‘It was absolutely horrendous especially as I had no idea a hamster bite could cause something like this.
‘My whole body felt swollen and my throat hurt – I couldn’t even speak and it was like breathing through a straw. I was covered in hives.
‘Nobody had ever heard of what had happened before. It amused the doctors but they were very professional about it.
‘They gave me epi pens for the next time a hamster wants to take me on.
‘All jokes aside, the experience was really very scary.’
Luckily anaphylactic shocks like these from hamster bites are extremely rare but a man died from one in 2007 so it is not unheard of.
All of this took its toll on Nathan and he added: ‘I was exhausted for the next two days and my right arm couldn’t stop shaking.
‘I was definitely the dullest guy in major trauma. I did try to change the story to a scorpion but I think the paramedics preferred hamster.
‘One of the paramedics asked me if I was Freddie Starr.
‘Mochi is now in a fancy cracker box in the garden – I don’t blame her.
‘We rescue hamsters from people who otherwise wouldn’t want them and I’d never say no to another one.’
Nathan is now warning others to be aware of the symptoms of anaphylactic shock and to know when to dial 999.
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