James Harrison: One Man's Blood Donations Saved Over Two Million Lives

James Harrison Born: December 27, 1936 Known for: Blood plasma donation Today I found out about a man who saved over 2 million liv...

James Harrison
Born: December 27, 1936
Known for: Blood plasma donation

Today I found out about a man who saved over 2 million lives just by donating his blood plasma. Australian James Harrison is known as “the man with the golden arm” due to the unusual composition of his blood. Harrison’s blood contains an antibody called Rho(D) Immune Globulin which is used to treat Rhesus disease, a severe form of anemia where antibodies in a pregnant woman’s blood destroy her baby’s blood cells.
James Harrison may never have discovered this if it were not for the fact that when he was 13 in 1949, Harrison had a major chest surgery. The surgery required transfusions of almost three-and-a-half gallons of blood. During the three months he spent recovering in the hospital, grateful for the donated blood that had saved his life; he pledged to start donating his own as soon as he was legally old enough as a way to pay back the kindness of the strangers who donated the blood he used.
In 1954, when Harrison turned 18 and started giving blood, it was quickly discovered that his blood contained a rare, very valuable lifesaving antibody that could be used to treat Rhesus disease.
At that time, Rhesus disease was killing thousands of babies per year (around 10,000 annually in the U.S. alone), as well as causing major birth defects such as brain damage. Most people (about 85%) have a special protein in their blood cells called the Rh factor, which makes them Rh positive (positive blood type); the remainder, who lack Rh factor, are called Rh negative (and have a negative blood type).
Women who’ve been pregnant may remember the Rh blood test, which screens to detect any incompatibility: If [mother] is Rh-negative and baby is Rh-positive, [mother's] body will react to the baby’s blood as a foreign substance. Mother's body will create antibodies (proteins) against the baby’s Rh-positive blood. Rh incompatibility is more likely to cause problems in second or later pregnancies when Rh antibodies can cross the placenta and attack the baby’s red blood cells leading to hemolytic anemia in the baby.
Luckily, if an incompatibility is found early on, there is a prenatal treatment (Rh immune globulin) that will prevent any problems before they start. This works by introducing antibodies that will attach to Rh-positive red blood cells. This effectively makes it so the mother’s immune system won’t detect and then try to destroy them.
When the discovery was made about Harrison’s blood, he agreed to undergo extensive tests and experiments that eventually led to the development of a vaccine called Anti-D. Harrison said he was eager to help but some precautions were taken in case something happened to him during the testing.
“They insured me for a million dollars so I knew my wife Barbara would be taken care of. I wasn’t scared. I was glad to help,” Harrison said in a 2010 interview.
Besides letting himself to be used as a guinea-pig in the development of the Anti-D vaccine, Harrison has donated an extreme amount of plasma. Plasma can be given every two to three weeks, unlike whole blood, which is only recommended to be donated every six weeks. This allowed Harrison to donate over 1000 times in the 57 years he’s been doing it. He has continued to donate since he reached 1000 donations in 2011. It is estimated Harrison has helped save about 2-2.5 million people so far. Among that number, his own daughter, Tracey, had to have the Anti-D injection after the birth of her son.

COMMENTS

BLOGGER: 1
Loading...
Name

A-Kay Aagaaz Agriculture Ajay Devgn Akhil Akshay Kumar Ammy Virk Amrit Maan Android Anushka Sharma Apps Army Automobile Avantika Awards Ayurveda B Praak Babbal Rai Badshah Beat Minister Bilal Saeed Blogger Tips Blood Donation Bollywood Books BoxOffice Collection BSNL Bunty Bains Business Cars Chemical Engineering Chrome Extensions Clash Of Clans Climate Computer Tricks Defense Forces Dera Sacha Sauda Desi Crew Desi Routz Didar Othie Documentary Download Dr. Zeus Education Emraan Hashmi Encoding Engineering English Songs Entertainment Farming Fazilpuria Filmfare Finance Funny Gaming Garry Sandhu Geeta Zaildar Gippy Grewal Girik Aman Goldboy Gurmeet Ram Rahim Hacking Happy Raikoti Hardeep Grewal Harish Verma Harshit Tomar Haryanvi Songs Health Himanshi Khurana Himesh Reshammiya Hindi Songs History HKNKJ Hollywood Honeypreet Insan How to HTML Ikka Inspiration Internet Tips Jaani Jassie Gill Jatinder Shah Jattu Engineer Jay-K Jenny Johal Jordan Sandhu Kamal Heer Kamal Khaira Kambi Kanth Kaler KRK Kulbir Danoda Living Lyrics Maninder Kailey Mankirt Aulakh Manni Sandhu Mannu Diwana Mass Transfer Master Saleem MD KD Mehtab Virk Mobile Movie Reviews Movie Trailer MSG Apparels MSG Products Music My Diary Neha Kakkar News Nimrat Khaira Ninja Open Letters Parmish Verma Pav Dharia People Pollywood Posters Prabh Gill Preet Hundal Preet Mand Product Reviews Punjabi Songs Raftaar Rakhi Sawant Randeep Hooda Religion Reviews Riddle Salman Khan Science Shael Oswal Shah Rukh Khan Shakira Sharry Mann Sheera Jasvir Short Films Sippy Gill Social Sonam Bajwa Sports Star Talks Sukh Sanghera Sukh-E Sundar Pichai Sushil Kumar Tanvi Nagi Tarsem Jassar Tech Terrorism Tony Kakkar Top List Tutorials TV Series Twitter Virus Solutions Wallpapers Wars Windows Tips Wrestling Writings Yoga YWF Events
false
ltr
item
Youth Voice: James Harrison: One Man's Blood Donations Saved Over Two Million Lives
James Harrison: One Man's Blood Donations Saved Over Two Million Lives
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlkplE5q7lU2aEpdTw068lyAOsIXj9_9QrSeyhzdSNwMEGA_VVBPMfdV-eCKoXabTq1qKyAhpsYS5OwQ4NBh1xiVNIfpR-7XXaBlaPGeS6MBsZ7DICq2SJ3lSVb2A0aLiyiNry0HGXPaU/s1600/James+Harrison+Blood+Donar+Unique+Plasma.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlkplE5q7lU2aEpdTw068lyAOsIXj9_9QrSeyhzdSNwMEGA_VVBPMfdV-eCKoXabTq1qKyAhpsYS5OwQ4NBh1xiVNIfpR-7XXaBlaPGeS6MBsZ7DICq2SJ3lSVb2A0aLiyiNry0HGXPaU/s72-c/James+Harrison+Blood+Donar+Unique+Plasma.jpg
Youth Voice
https://www.ywfyouthvoice.com/2014/07/james-harrison-one-mans-blood-donations.html
https://www.ywfyouthvoice.com/
http://www.ywfyouthvoice.com/
http://www.ywfyouthvoice.com/2014/07/james-harrison-one-mans-blood-donations.html
true
7857785866171732330
UTF-8
Not found any posts VIEW ALL Readmore Reply Cancel reply Delete By Home PAGES POSTS View All RECOMMENDED FOR YOU LABEL ARCHIVE SEARCH ALL POSTS Not found any post match with your request Back Home Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat January February March April May June July August September October November December Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec just now 1 minute ago $$1$$ minutes ago 1 hour ago $$1$$ hours ago Yesterday $$1$$ days ago $$1$$ weeks ago more than 5 weeks ago Followers Follow THIS CONTENT IS PREMIUM Please share to unlock Copy All Code Select All Code All codes were copied to your clipboard Can not copy the codes / texts, please press [CTRL]+[C] (or CMD+C with Mac) to copy