WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: How Did One Blood Donor Save 2 Million Babies?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.080
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:10.799
<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this this is another classic episode.

0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:14.120
<v Speaker 1>Today we're returning to the story of a man whose

0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.639
<v Speaker 1>blood donations saved over two million babies over the course

0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.640
<v Speaker 1>of a few decades. And as of this recording, he's

0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:25.400
<v Speaker 1>doing just fine. By the way, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren

0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.120
<v Speaker 1>Vogelbaum here. When currently eighty one year old John Harrison

0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.159
<v Speaker 1>was just fourteen years old, he received a blood transfusion

0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.720
<v Speaker 1>following a major chest surgery. He had a long removed

0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.040
<v Speaker 1>and thirteen units or pints of other people's blood that's

0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.879
<v Speaker 1>nearly two gallons, made their life saving way into his veins.

0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:48.320
<v Speaker 1>That transfusion inspired Harrison's later generosity. He promised to begin

0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.680
<v Speaker 1>donating once he turned eighteen, and did so weekly until

0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:55.800
<v Speaker 1>May eleven, when, according to the Australian Red Cross, he

0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:59.560
<v Speaker 1>gave his final donation. He's fine. That's just the maximum

0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.880
<v Speaker 1>age in Australia for giving blood. Harrison's prolific donation is

0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.080
<v Speaker 1>notable enough that in two thousand three, Guinness World Records

0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.560
<v Speaker 1>recognized his achievement for the most blood donated by a

0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:14.680
<v Speaker 1>single person. His record was broken in but would say

0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.880
<v Speaker 1>it's still nothing to sneeze at. And Harrison's blood is

0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.880
<v Speaker 1>notable not only for quantity, but also for quality. He's

0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.800
<v Speaker 1>credited with saving the lives of more than two million

0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:29.399
<v Speaker 1>Australian babies. Harrison, known in Australia as the Man with

0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:33.319
<v Speaker 1>the Golden Arm, produces a rare and powerful antibody in

0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.800
<v Speaker 1>his blood called r H d immunoglobin or anti D.

0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.400
<v Speaker 1>It protects unborn babies from the potentially deadly condition r

0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.040
<v Speaker 1>H incompatibility. When a pregnant woman with an r H

0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.400
<v Speaker 1>negative blood type carries a baby with RH positive blood,

0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:51.880
<v Speaker 1>the woman's body mistakenly treats the baby's red blood cells

0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.000
<v Speaker 1>like an outside threat. Her body produces antibodies to combat

0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.280
<v Speaker 1>what it perceives as an invader, with potentially deadly effect.

0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.160
<v Speaker 1>Miss carriage, still birth, fetal brain damage, and anemia are

0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.880
<v Speaker 1>all possible outcomes. Australian doctors have theorized that the transfusion

0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.720
<v Speaker 1>that Harrison received as a teen may have contributed to

0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:13.640
<v Speaker 1>the unique composition of the blood his body now produces.

0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.400
<v Speaker 1>Harrison made his final contribution at the town Hall Donor

0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.400
<v Speaker 1>Center in Sydney, Australia, surrounded by mothers and their children

0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.359
<v Speaker 1>who had benefited from the treatment, as well as large

0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.280
<v Speaker 1>silver balloons in the shape of the numerals one, one,

0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.760
<v Speaker 1>seven three, one thousand, one d and seventy three being

0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.280
<v Speaker 1>the number of times Harrison donated blood throughout his life.

0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:38.760
<v Speaker 1>Harrison told a Sydney Morning Herald reporter attending the final donation,

0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.160
<v Speaker 1>it's a sad day for me, the end of a

0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.320
<v Speaker 1>long run. Robin Barlow, the r H program coordinator who

0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.040
<v Speaker 1>recruited James to be the program's first donor, told the

0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:52.079
<v Speaker 1>newspaper every ampule of antide ever made in Australia has

0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.840
<v Speaker 1>James in it. Since the very first mother received her

0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:58.359
<v Speaker 1>dose at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in nine seven. It's

0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:03.639
<v Speaker 1>an enormous thing. He's saved millions of babies. Approximately seventeen

0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.480
<v Speaker 1>percent of pregnant Australian women received doses of anti d.

0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.400
<v Speaker 1>That number includes Harrison's own daughter, Tracy Mellowship, who was

0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.200
<v Speaker 1>treated in nineteen two and gave birth to a healthy

0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:17.960
<v Speaker 1>son named Scott in When Scott turned sixteen and eleven,

0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.240
<v Speaker 1>he gave his first blood donation, sitting next to his grandfather,

0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.960
<v Speaker 1>who was marking his thousand but there's a bit of

0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.160
<v Speaker 1>a twist. Harrison, who received the Medal of the Order

0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.720
<v Speaker 1>of Australia in nineteen nine, has had a lifelong fear

0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.440
<v Speaker 1>of needles. In his more than six decades of donating blood,

0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.480
<v Speaker 1>He's never watched a nurse insert and needle in his arm,

0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:47.440
<v Speaker 1>preferring to look away. Today's episode is based on the

0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.280
<v Speaker 1>article the Man whose Blood Saved more than two million

0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.560
<v Speaker 1>babies on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Christopher Hasiotus.

0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.320
<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff's production of by Heart Radio in partnership with

0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.760
<v Speaker 1>how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Kline.

0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:01.560
<v Speaker 1>Four more pod tests from my heart Radio, visit the

0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.240
<v Speaker 1>I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:16.480
<v Speaker 1>to your favorite shows. H