On the surface, James Harrison is just an average guy.
He loves his daughter and grandchildren, collects stamps, and goes for walks
near his home on Australia's central coast. But it's what's under the surface
that makes him extraordinary -- specifically, what's flowing in his veins.
Known as "The Man with the Golden Arm,"
nearly every week for the past 60 years he has donated blood plasma from his
right arm. The reasons can be traced back to a serious medical procedure he
underwent as a child.
"In 1951, I had a chest operation where they
removed a lung -- and I was 14," recalls Harrison, who is now aged 78.
"When I came out of the operation, or a couple
days after, my father was explaining what had happened. He said I had
(received) 13 units (liters) of blood and my life had been saved by unknown
people. He was a donor himself, so I said when I'm old enough, I'll become a
blood donor."
Soon after Harrison became a donor, doctors called
him in. His blood, they said, could be the answer to a deadly problem.
"In Australia, up until about 1967, there were
literally thousands of babies dying each year, doctors didn't know why, and it
was awful," explains Jemma Falkenmire, of the Australian Red Cross
Blood Service. "Women were having numerous miscarriages and babies
were being born with brain damage."
It was the result of rhesus disease -- a condition
where a pregnant woman's blood actually starts attacking her unborn baby's
blood cells. In the worst cases it can result in brain damage, or death, for
the babies.
Rhesus disease happens when a pregnant woman has
rhesus-negative blood (RhD negative) and the baby in her womb has
rhesus-positive blood (RhD positive), inherited from its father. If the mother
has been sensitized to rhesus-positive blood, usually during a previous
pregnancy with an rhesus-positive baby, she may produce antibodies that destroy
the baby's "foreign" blood cells.
Harrison was discovered to have an unusual antibody
in his blood and in the 1960s he worked with doctors to use the antibodies to
develop an injection called Anti-D. It prevents women with rhesus-negative
blood from developing RhD antibodies during pregnancy.
"Australia was one of the first countries to
discover a blood donor with this antibody, so it was quite revolutionary at the
time," says Falkenmire.
Harrison's blood is precious. He and Anti-D are
credited with saving the lives of more than 2 million babies, according to the
Australian Red Cross blood service: That's 2 million lives saved by one man's
blood.
"Every bag of blood is precious, but James'
blood is particularly extraordinary," says Falkenmire. "His blood is
actually used to make a life-saving medication, given to moms whose blood is at
risk of attacking their unborn babies. Every batch of Anti-D that has ever been
made in Australia has come from James' blood.
"And more than 17% of women in Australia are at
risk, so James has helped save a lot of lives."
One of those lives is that of baby Samuel, who is
just five weeks old. His mother, Kristy Pastor, first received the Anti-D
injection during her second pregnancy. With Harrison's antibodies in her blood,
little Samuel is her fourth happy and healthy baby.
"They just said you needed the vaccine,"
she said. "I didn't think about it any further, and then looking into it a
bit more, I found out about James and how amazing he is and how many donations
he's made, and that it was all because of him.
"I'm grateful and I think James is really
selfless to continue to donate, so that we can keep having this vaccine."
Doctors still aren't exactly sure why Harrison has
this rare blood type but they think it might be from the transfusions he
received when he was 14, after his lung surgery. He's one of no more than 50
people in Australia known to have the antibodies, according the Australian Red
Cross blood service.
"I don't think anyone will be able to do what
he's done, but certainly we do need people to step into his shoes," she
adds. "He will have to retire in the next couple years, and I guess for us
the hope is there will be people who will donate, who will also ... have this
antibody and become life savers in the same way he has, and all we can do is
hope there will be people out there generous enough to do it, and selflessly in
the way he's done."
Harrison is considered a national hero, and has won
numerous awards. He's now donated his plasma more than 1,000 times, but no
matter how many times he's given blood there's one thing that will never
change: "Never once have I watched the needle go in my arm," he says.
"I look at the ceiling or the nurses, maybe talk
to them a bit, but never once have I watched the needle go in my arm. I can't
stand the sight of blood, and I can't stand pain."
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