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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this this is another classic episode.

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Speaker 1: Today we're returning to the story of a man whose

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Speaker 1: blood donations saved over two million babies over the course

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Speaker 1: of a few decades. And as of this recording, he's

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Speaker 1: doing just fine. By the way, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren

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Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. When currently eighty one year old John Harrison

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Speaker 1: was just fourteen years old, he received a blood transfusion

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Speaker 1: following a major chest surgery. He had a long removed

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Speaker 1: and thirteen units or pints of other people's blood that's

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Speaker 1: nearly two gallons, made their life saving way into his veins.

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Speaker 1: That transfusion inspired Harrison's later generosity. He promised to begin

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Speaker 1: donating once he turned eighteen, and did so weekly until

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Speaker 1: May eleven, when, according to the Australian Red Cross, he

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Speaker 1: gave his final donation. He's fine. That's just the maximum

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Speaker 1: age in Australia for giving blood. Harrison's prolific donation is

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Speaker 1: notable enough that in two thousand three, Guinness World Records

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Speaker 1: recognized his achievement for the most blood donated by a

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Speaker 1: single person. His record was broken in but would say

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Speaker 1: it's still nothing to sneeze at. And Harrison's blood is

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Speaker 1: notable not only for quantity, but also for quality. He's

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Speaker 1: credited with saving the lives of more than two million

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Speaker 1: Australian babies. Harrison, known in Australia as the Man with

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Speaker 1: the Golden Arm, produces a rare and powerful antibody in

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Speaker 1: his blood called r H d immunoglobin or anti D.

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Speaker 1: It protects unborn babies from the potentially deadly condition r

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Speaker 1: H incompatibility. When a pregnant woman with an r H

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Speaker 1: negative blood type carries a baby with RH positive blood,

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Speaker 1: the woman's body mistakenly treats the baby's red blood cells

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Speaker 1: like an outside threat. Her body produces antibodies to combat

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Speaker 1: what it perceives as an invader, with potentially deadly effect.

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Speaker 1: Miss carriage, still birth, fetal brain damage, and anemia are

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Speaker 1: all possible outcomes. Australian doctors have theorized that the transfusion

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Speaker 1: that Harrison received as a teen may have contributed to

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Speaker 1: the unique composition of the blood his body now produces.

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Speaker 1: Harrison made his final contribution at the town Hall Donor

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Speaker 1: Center in Sydney, Australia, surrounded by mothers and their children

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Speaker 1: who had benefited from the treatment, as well as large

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Speaker 1: silver balloons in the shape of the numerals one, one,

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Speaker 1: seven three, one thousand, one d and seventy three being

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Speaker 1: the number of times Harrison donated blood throughout his life.

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Speaker 1: Harrison told a Sydney Morning Herald reporter attending the final donation,

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Speaker 1: it's a sad day for me, the end of a

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Speaker 1: long run. Robin Barlow, the r H program coordinator who

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Speaker 1: recruited James to be the program's first donor, told the

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Speaker 1: newspaper every ampule of antide ever made in Australia has

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Speaker 1: James in it. Since the very first mother received her

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Speaker 1: dose at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in nine seven. It's

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Speaker 1: an enormous thing. He's saved millions of babies. Approximately seventeen

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Speaker 1: percent of pregnant Australian women received doses of anti d.

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Speaker 1: That number includes Harrison's own daughter, Tracy Mellowship, who was

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Speaker 1: treated in nineteen two and gave birth to a healthy

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Speaker 1: son named Scott in When Scott turned sixteen and eleven,

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Speaker 1: he gave his first blood donation, sitting next to his grandfather,

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Speaker 1: who was marking his thousand but there's a bit of

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Speaker 1: a twist. Harrison, who received the Medal of the Order

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Speaker 1: of Australia in nineteen nine, has had a lifelong fear

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Speaker 1: of needles. In his more than six decades of donating blood,

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Speaker 1: He's never watched a nurse insert and needle in his arm,

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Speaker 1: preferring to look away. Today's episode is based on the

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Speaker 1: article the Man whose Blood Saved more than two million

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Speaker 1: babies on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Christopher Hasiotus.

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Speaker 1: Brain Stuff's production of by Heart Radio in partnership with

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Speaker 1: how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Kline.

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