James Harrison, Who Saved 2.4M Babies, Dies At 88
James Harrison, the Australian blood donor known as the “Man with the Golden Arm,” has passed away at the age of 88. His rare blood plasma donations saved 2.4 million babies, making him one of history’s most impactful donors.
Harrison, a retired state railway department clerk, passed away in a nursing home on the central coast of New South Wales on February 17, according to his grandson, Jarrod Mellowship.
Harrison’s plasma contained a rare antibody known as anti-D, which is used to create injections that protect unborn babies from haemolytic disease of the newborn. This condition occurs when a pregnant woman’s immune system attacks her foetus’s red blood cells, particularly when the mother has an Rh-negative blood type while the baby has Rh-positive blood. Before the introduction of anti-D injections in the mid-1960s, haemolytic disease of the newborn often resulted in severe anaemia, heart failure, or even death in many infants.
Australia has only 200 anti-D donors, who help 45,000 mothers and their babies each year. Lifeblood, the national organisation responsible for blood donations, has been working with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research to develop lab-grown anti-D antibodies by replicating blood and immune cells from Harrison and other donors.
Despite his aversion to needles, Harrison made 1,173 donations from the time he turned 18 in 1954 until he was required to retire in 2018 at the age of 81.
“He did it for the right reasons. As humble as he was, he did like the attention. But he would never do it for the attention,” Mellowship said. He added that Harrison had been surprised when Guinness World Records recognised him in 2005 as the person who had donated the most blood plasma in the world. That record was later broken in 2022 by Brett Cooper of Walker, Michigan, in the United States.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service paid tribute to Harrison, calling him the “man with the golden arm.” The organisation, also known as Lifeblood, credited him with saving 2.4 million babies through his plasma donations.
Lifeblood chief executive Stephen Cornelissen said Harrison had hoped someone in Australia would eventually surpass his donation record.
“James was a remarkable, stoically kind and generous person who was committed to a lifetime of giving, and he captured the hearts of many people around the world,” Cornelissen said in a statement.
“It was James’ belief that his donations were no more important than any other donors’ and that everyone can be special in the same way that he was,” Cornelissen added.
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Mellowship shared that his mother, Tracey Mellowship, Harrison’s daughter, had needed the anti-D treatment when he and his brother, Scott, were born. Additionally, his own wife, Rebecca, required the treatment when three of their four children were born.
There is speculation that Harrison developed high concentrations of anti-D due to the blood transfusions he received during major lung surgery at age 14.
“After the surgery, his dad, Reg, told Grandad, ‘You’re only really alive because people donated blood,’” Jarrod Mellowship said. “The day he turned 18, he started donating.”
Harrison’s daughter, Tracey Mellowship, recalled how proud he was of the impact he had made.
“He always said it does not hurt, and the life you save could be your own,” she said.
“It made James happy to hear about the many families like ours, who existed because of his kindness,” she added.
Harrison, who was born in New South Wales, is survived by his sister, Margaret Thrift; his daughter; two grandsons; and four great-grandchildren.
SOURCE: ( https://apnews.com/ https://tribuneonlineng.com/ )
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