James Harrison, the man with the ‘golden arm’ who saved more than 2 million babies by donating more than a thousand blood

James Harrison is a flesh and blood superhero. The Australian received the nickname ‘man with the golden arm’ because his power is precisely in the atypical composition of his blood plasma, necessary to manufacture a medicine used in the treatment of a disease that can generate many complications during pregnancy. Throughout his life, he made 1,173 blood donations. It is estimated that they have helped deliver more than 2 million babies.

Today the incredible.club brings you the story of James, which, like many famous characters, had a tragic beginning and a happy ending.

James was born in 1936 and, at the age of 14, had major chest surgery. For this, he needed a transfusion of 13 liters of blood. After 3 months he was able to leave the hospital and when he learned that the blood of many other people had saved his life, he promised himself that he would start donating blood as soon as he turned 18, the age required by law at that time.

And so, in 1954, he became a donor. Already the first time, it was discovered that her blood contained an antibody called immunoglobulin RHo (D), important for treating a type of blood factor incompatibility between mother and fetus and which is capable of causing serious problems during pregnancy.

James’ plasma was used to create a specific treatment for erythroblastosis fetalis. It is a hemolytic disorder of the newborn that can manifest itself when a pregnant woman has Rh negative blood and the baby has Rh positive blood inherited from the father.

In cases like this, the mother’s body can manufacture antibodies against the fetus’s blood, which is then recognized as a kind of foreign element. In this process, destruction of red blood cells can occur, which in turn can cause complications in the fetus and harm a future pregnancy. To prevent this from happening, there is a vaccine called anti-D, created with a special ingredient: James Harrison’s plasma.

Doctors don’t know exactly why the ‘man with the golden arm’ has such a strange blood type, but they believe it could be because of the transfusions he received when he was 14. “Very few people have these antibodies in such high concentrations,” says Jemma Falkenmire, a member of the Australian Red Cross Blood Donation Service.

Despite his fear of needles (he never wanted to see them go into his arm), he donated every other week for 60 years. Unlike a normal donation, which requires a wait of 8 weeks between each procedure, plasma donation can be done every 15 days, since this is the liquid part of the blood, formed largely by water, which allows a faster donor recovery.

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service estimates that James has helped save over 2.4 million babies from a potentially deadly disease. Among those saved is his daughter, Tracey, who also received the antibody treatment.

“My own daughter received an injection. His son, my grandson, will be 23 years old, which made me very happy, because I was able to have a healthy grandson, like so many other children”, said James, who lives in New South Wales, in the southwest of Australia.

On May 11 last year, James made his last donation in the city of Sydney. At the age of 81, he reached the age limit as a donor established by Australian legislation. 4 balloons were taken that formed the number 1,173, the number of times this hero offered his arm to save the lives of millions of babies.

“It was very sad, it’s the end of an era for me”, he said, accompanied by 12 mothers and their babies, who went to the place to thank him for the beautiful gesture. “I would keep doing that if I was allowed to,” he added.

James has received several awards, including the Medal of the Order of Australia, the highest in the country and which “recognizes its citizens and others for their meritorious deeds or services”. “One of my talents — and probably the only one I have — is being a blood donor,” he explained with humility and good humor.

Now that he is ‘retired’ from the job, the medical authorities hope to be able to find another donor who has the same antibodies and the same willingness and generosity as James. However, the task will not be easy, as it is estimated that there are less than 50 people across the country with the same different plasma composition.

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