Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this this is another classic episode.
Speaker 1: Today we're returning to the story of a man whose
Speaker 1: blood donations saved over two million babies over the course
Speaker 1: of a few decades. And as of this recording, he's
Speaker 1: doing just fine. By the way, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. When currently eighty one year old John Harrison
Speaker 1: was just fourteen years old, he received a blood transfusion
Speaker 1: following a major chest surgery. He had a long removed
Speaker 1: and thirteen units or pints of other people's blood that's
Speaker 1: nearly two gallons, made their life saving way into his veins.
Speaker 1: That transfusion inspired Harrison's later generosity. He promised to begin
Speaker 1: donating once he turned eighteen, and did so weekly until
Speaker 1: May eleven, when, according to the Australian Red Cross, he
Speaker 1: gave his final donation. He's fine. That's just the maximum
Speaker 1: age in Australia for giving blood. Harrison's prolific donation is
Speaker 1: notable enough that in two thousand three, Guinness World Records
Speaker 1: recognized his achievement for the most blood donated by a
Speaker 1: single person. His record was broken in but would say
Speaker 1: it's still nothing to sneeze at. And Harrison's blood is
Speaker 1: notable not only for quantity, but also for quality. He's
Speaker 1: credited with saving the lives of more than two million
Speaker 1: Australian babies. Harrison, known in Australia as the Man with
Speaker 1: the Golden Arm, produces a rare and powerful antibody in
Speaker 1: his blood called r H d immunoglobin or anti D.
Speaker 1: It protects unborn babies from the potentially deadly condition r
Speaker 1: H incompatibility. When a pregnant woman with an r H
Speaker 1: negative blood type carries a baby with RH positive blood,
Speaker 1: the woman's body mistakenly treats the baby's red blood cells
Speaker 1: like an outside threat. Her body produces antibodies to combat
Speaker 1: what it perceives as an invader, with potentially deadly effect.
Speaker 1: Miss carriage, still birth, fetal brain damage, and anemia are
Speaker 1: all possible outcomes. Australian doctors have theorized that the transfusion
Speaker 1: that Harrison received as a teen may have contributed to
Speaker 1: the unique composition of the blood his body now produces.
Speaker 1: Harrison made his final contribution at the town Hall Donor
Speaker 1: Center in Sydney, Australia, surrounded by mothers and their children
Speaker 1: who had benefited from the treatment, as well as large
Speaker 1: silver balloons in the shape of the numerals one, one,
Speaker 1: seven three, one thousand, one d and seventy three being
Speaker 1: the number of times Harrison donated blood throughout his life.
Speaker 1: Harrison told a Sydney Morning Herald reporter attending the final donation,
Speaker 1: it's a sad day for me, the end of a
Speaker 1: long run. Robin Barlow, the r H program coordinator who
Speaker 1: recruited James to be the program's first donor, told the
Speaker 1: newspaper every ampule of antide ever made in Australia has
Speaker 1: James in it. Since the very first mother received her
Speaker 1: dose at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in nine seven. It's
Speaker 1: an enormous thing. He's saved millions of babies. Approximately seventeen
Speaker 1: percent of pregnant Australian women received doses of anti d.
Speaker 1: That number includes Harrison's own daughter, Tracy Mellowship, who was
Speaker 1: treated in nineteen two and gave birth to a healthy
Speaker 1: son named Scott in When Scott turned sixteen and eleven,
Speaker 1: he gave his first blood donation, sitting next to his grandfather,
Speaker 1: who was marking his thousand but there's a bit of
Speaker 1: a twist. Harrison, who received the Medal of the Order
Speaker 1: of Australia in nineteen nine, has had a lifelong fear
Speaker 1: of needles. In his more than six decades of donating blood,
Speaker 1: He's never watched a nurse insert and needle in his arm,
Speaker 1: preferring to look away. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article the Man whose Blood Saved more than two million
Speaker 1: babies on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Christopher Hasiotus.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff's production of by Heart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Kline.
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