Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: In Greek mythology, the fall of Icarus represents the dangers
Speaker 1: of overconfidence, also known as hubris. As the legend goes,
Speaker 1: Icarus and his father were imprisoned on the island of Crete.
Speaker 1: In an attempt to escape, they built two sets of
Speaker 1: wax wings, which would allow them to fly off the
Speaker 1: island towards freedom. At first, their journey was going smoothly,
Speaker 1: but Icarus got cocky. He rose higher and higher into
Speaker 1: the sky, flying so close to the sun that his
Speaker 1: wings melted. He fell into the ocean and drowned, a
Speaker 1: victim of his own hubris. The lesson is clear, overconfidence
Speaker 1: can lead to disaster. Unfortunately, it seems that Alexander Bogdanov,
Speaker 1: sometimes called the Icarus of hematology, did not get the memo.
Speaker 1: Alexander was born in Russia in eighteen seventy three. He
Speaker 1: was prolific at well, almost everything. Actually, he was an
Speaker 1: ardent socialist who rose through Russia's political ranks. He was
Speaker 1: a science fiction writer who penned tales about utopian societies.
Speaker 1: He was a poet, a philosopher, and a teacher. As
Speaker 1: if all of that wasn't enough, he was also a physician.
Speaker 1: During World War One, Alexander served as a doctor in
Speaker 1: the Russian Army. Much of his job involved giving blood
Speaker 1: transfusions to wounded soldiers. Now, it's important to point out
Speaker 1: that at this point in history, hematology or the science
Speaker 1: of blood, was fairly new. Scientists had just recently figured
Speaker 1: out about blood types. You've probably heard of these before,
Speaker 1: But to put a simple every human's blood falls into
Speaker 1: certain categories. We label these with letters AB and O
Speaker 1: and either a positive or a negative sign. Knowing a
Speaker 1: person's blood type is integral to performing a safe and
Speaker 1: effective transfusion. Alexander got a lot of practice doing transfusions
Speaker 1: during World War One. When he returned home after the war,
Speaker 1: he continued studying hematology, and he came up with some
Speaker 1: ideas that were a bit well out there. You see,
Speaker 1: Alexander believe that blood transfusions might be the key to immortality,
Speaker 1: or at least they might be able to reverse aging.
Speaker 1: This was a particular interest to Alexander because in the
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties he was around fifty years old. He was
Speaker 1: going through all the normal things that fifty year olds do.
Speaker 1: His hair was thinning, his vision was getting worse, and
Speaker 1: he didn't quite feel as spry and energetic as he
Speaker 1: did in decades past. He wanted to get back some
Speaker 1: of his youthful spirit, and so he figured why not
Speaker 1: do an experiment on himself. He managed to get eleven
Speaker 1: of his younger students to voluntarily donate blood to him.
Speaker 1: Then he transfused these donations into his own body, essentially
Speaker 1: trying to replace his quote unquote older blood with newer blood.
Speaker 1: And just to be clear, nobody had ever really done
Speaker 1: this before. Alexander was taking a huge risk assuming that
Speaker 1: transfusing pints upon pints of blood wouldn't have any adverse effects,
Speaker 1: and at first it didn't. Alexander actually thought that his
Speaker 1: weird experiment was working. He reported that his hair was
Speaker 1: coming back and thicker, his eyesight seemed to be improving,
Speaker 1: and he felt happier and more energetic than he had
Speaker 1: in years now. Clearly Alexander was not considering the placebo effect.
Speaker 1: These supposed changes weren't quantifiable, they were just self reported. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: he was totally convinced, and so were many of his
Speaker 1: friends and students. They told him the blood transfusions made
Speaker 1: him look ten years younger. So Alexander kept up with
Speaker 1: this vampiric routine, filling his veins with the blood of
Speaker 1: younger men. You might say that he was wearing wax
Speaker 1: wings and flying dangerously close to the sun. In April
Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty eight, Alexander's hubris became his downfall. He
Speaker 1: obtained a blood sample from a student and transfused it
Speaker 1: into his own body. Little did he know that student
Speaker 1: had malaria. Alexander had accidentally infected himself with one of
Speaker 1: the most dangerous diseases in the world. The student who
Speaker 1: gave the blood sample survived, but Alexander did not. He
Speaker 1: passed away that same month, going down in history as
Speaker 1: the Icarus of hematology. It was a tragic ending for
Speaker 1: a truly impressive man, but at least he taught us
Speaker 1: all a lesson. Aging is inevitable, so you might as
Speaker 1: well embrace that bald spot every superhero has an origin
Speaker 1: story right. Spider Man got his powers when he was
Speaker 1: bitten by a radioactive arachnid. The Hulk's transformation was triggered
Speaker 1: by gamma rays, and the Flash gained super speed after
Speaker 1: being struck by lightning. When it comes to strange beginnings, though,
Speaker 1: James Harrison is different, that's because he's not a storybook character.
Speaker 1: He's a real man who's credited with saving over two
Speaker 1: point four million lives, and he got his superpower when
Speaker 1: he was just fourteen years old. At the time, it
Speaker 1: was nineteen fifty one and James had just fallen ill
Speaker 1: with a severe respiratory condition. He was so sick that
Speaker 1: his parents rushed him to the hospital, where he underwent
Speaker 1: major chest surgery. He had to have one of his
Speaker 1: lungs completely removed to make it through the operation, James
Speaker 1: received multiple blood transfusions, totally about two gallons. After three
Speaker 1: months of recovery, James was okay, but he never forgot
Speaker 1: his near death experience. He knew that without those blood
Speaker 1: transfusions he wouldn't have survived, and he wanted to pay
Speaker 1: it forward. As soon as he turned eighteen, he approached
Speaker 1: the Australian Red Cross Blood Service and asked to make
Speaker 1: a donation. This was a big deal for James. Even
Speaker 1: after the surgery that he'd been through, he was scared
Speaker 1: of needles. He looked the other direction as the nurse
Speaker 1: stuck the sharp tip into his vein. He kept his
Speaker 1: eyes averted until a full pint of his blood had
Speaker 1: dripped into the donation bag and the nurse replaced the
Speaker 1: needle with a band aid. Shortly after, the Australian Red
Speaker 1: Cross Blood Service tested James's blood. This was standard procedure
Speaker 1: to make sure that the donation was safe to be
Speaker 1: given to a patient. But when they looked at James's blood,
Speaker 1: they realized something incredible. It was full of rare antibodies
Speaker 1: known as reesus d immune globulin or anti D. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is where it gets a little complicated, so just
Speaker 1: stick with me here. You know how, when we talk
Speaker 1: about blood types, we say that someone is positive or negative.
Speaker 1: What we're really saying is that someone's blood either does
Speaker 1: or does not contain a protein called reesus. Our blood
Speaker 1: type is determined before we're even born. Now, when a
Speaker 1: person with Reese's negative blood is pregnant, the fetus might
Speaker 1: have the same blood type. In that case, everything is fine. However,
Speaker 1: sometimes the fetus can develop reesu's positive blood. This is
Speaker 1: called reesis incompatibility. When it happens, the pregnant person's body
Speaker 1: can have an immune reaction that creates the antibodies known
Speaker 1: as anti D. These targets and attack the fetus's blood cells,
Speaker 1: which can lead to birth effects or even miscarriage. For
Speaker 1: most of human history, doctors didn't have any way to
Speaker 1: treat reesus incompatibility. Tens of thousands of babies died from
Speaker 1: the disorder every year, and then in the early nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: researchers learned that anti D can be used to create
Speaker 1: a vaccine. It's kind of like how the flu shot works.
Speaker 1: Scientists can take the antibody, alter it slightly and then
Speaker 1: inject it into the pregnant person's body, and then this
Speaker 1: stops the blood cells from attacking their babies. It's a
Speaker 1: great solution. The problem is the only way to get
Speaker 1: anti D is through blood donors and it's incredibly rare,
Speaker 1: and that's where James Harrison comes in. James is one
Speaker 1: of an estimated fifty people in Australia whose blood contains
Speaker 1: anti D, and he has it in remarkable levels, like
Speaker 1: his body is just overflowing with the stuff. It's believed
Speaker 1: that during his lung surgery, James received a transfusion of
Speaker 1: blood that was incompatible with his own, leading his body
Speaker 1: to start producing anti d in record amounts. It's like
Speaker 1: a superhero origin story. A medical mistake gave a man
Speaker 1: life saving powers. Beginning at eighteen years old, James donated
Speaker 1: blood or plasma once a week. He sat down and
Speaker 1: turned his eyes away from the needle one one hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy three times. He became known as the Man
Speaker 1: with a Golden Arm. James retired from giving blood in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, at eighty one years old. Doctors estimate that
Speaker 1: over the course of his sixty three year career, he
Speaker 1: saved the lives of at least two point four million children.
Speaker 1: And if that isn't heroic, I don't know what is.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's Guided to you were of
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
Speaker 1: in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time,
Speaker 1: stay curious.