James Christopher Harrison, OAM, also known as the Man with the golden arm, is a blood plasma donor from Australia whose unusual plasma composition has been used to make a treatment for Rhesus disease.
He has made over 1000 donations throughout his lifetime, and these
donations are estimated to have saved over two million unborn babies
from the condition.
James Harrison was born on 27 December 1936. At the age of 14, he underwent major chest surgery, requiring 13 litres (2.9 imp gal; 3.4 US gal) of blood.
After surgery, he was in the hospital for three months. Realizing the
blood had saved his life, he made a pledge to start donating blood as
soon as he turned eighteen, the then-required age.
Harrison started donating in 1954 and after the first few donations
it was discovered that his blood contained an unusually strong and
persistent antibody called Rho(D) Immune Globulin. Rho(D)
IG is given to Rh(D) negative mothers of unknown or Rh(D) positive
babies during and after pregnancy to prevent the creation of antibodies
to the blood of a Rh(D) positive child. This antigen sensitization and
subsequent incompatibility phenomenon causes Rhesus disease, the most common form of hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN).
Through the donations of his plasma, Harrison helped prevent
thousands of children from dying of HDN. This uniqueness was considered
so important, that his life was insured for one million dollars after
this discovery and the following research based on his donations created the commercial Anti-D immune globulin
commonly known as RhoGAM. His blood plasma derivatives have since been
given as treatment to one in ten pregnant women whose blood could
potentially become incompatible with that of their children
As blood plasma, in contrast to blood, can be donated as often as 2–3
times per week, he was able to reach his 1000th donation in May 2011.
This results in an average of one donation every three weeks during 57
years. Commenting on his record, he said: I could say it's the only record that I hope is broken, because if they do, they have donated a thousand donations.
His donations were estimated to have helped save over 2.4 million
babies, with pregnant women, including his own daughter Tracey, being
treated with his antibodies.
In 2007, Harrison was critical of plans to open up Australia's plasma
donation to foreign corporations. He believes that opening up the trade
will discourage volunteers from donations. This opening of trade stemmed
from a review of the country's free trade agreement with the
Harrison was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) on 7 June 1999. He was nominated for Australian of the Year, though he did not win. In 2011, he was nominated in the New South Wales Local Hero division of the Australian of theYear awards.
Reference-Wikipedia.
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