George Boucher endured more than three years of dialysis waiting for a new kidney, even turning down one organ on his doctor’s advice because it came from a high-risk donor, his wife said.

 But in May 2005, less than a month after the 54-year-old Rhode Island man received the long-awaited organ, Boucher was dead, felled by a rare infection that lurked undetected in the transplanted kidney.

The source? A pet hamster bought the month before the organ donor’s sudden death.