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

A man with a rare antibody in his blood spent 63 years donating, and has touched millions of lives. Learn how in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/circulatory/man-whose-blood-saved-more-than-2-million-babies.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this this is another classic episode.
Today we're returning to the story of a man whose
blood donations saved over two million babies over the course
of a few decades. And as of this recording, he's
doing just fine. By the way, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren

(00:25):
Vogelbaum here. When currently eighty one year old John Harrison
was just fourteen years old, he received a blood transfusion
following a major chest surgery. He had a long removed
and thirteen units or pints of other people's blood that's
nearly two gallons, made their life saving way into his veins.
That transfusion inspired Harrison's later generosity. He promised to begin

(00:48):
donating once he turned eighteen, and did so weekly until
May eleven, when, according to the Australian Red Cross, he
gave his final donation. He's fine. That's just the maximum
age in Australia for giving blood. Harrison's prolific donation is
notable enough that in two thousand three, Guinness World Records
recognized his achievement for the most blood donated by a

(01:10):
single person. His record was broken in but would say
it's still nothing to sneeze at. And Harrison's blood is
notable not only for quantity, but also for quality. He's
credited with saving the lives of more than two million
Australian babies. Harrison, known in Australia as the Man with
the Golden Arm, produces a rare and powerful antibody in

(01:33):
his blood called r H d immunoglobin or anti D.
It protects unborn babies from the potentially deadly condition r
H incompatibility. When a pregnant woman with an r H
negative blood type carries a baby with RH positive blood,
the woman's body mistakenly treats the baby's red blood cells
like an outside threat. Her body produces antibodies to combat

(01:56):
what it perceives as an invader, with potentially deadly effect.
Miss carriage, still birth, fetal brain damage, and anemia are
all possible outcomes. Australian doctors have theorized that the transfusion
that Harrison received as a teen may have contributed to
the unique composition of the blood his body now produces.
Harrison made his final contribution at the town Hall Donor

(02:17):
Center in Sydney, Australia, surrounded by mothers and their children
who had benefited from the treatment, as well as large
silver balloons in the shape of the numerals one, one,
seven three, one thousand, one d and seventy three being
the number of times Harrison donated blood throughout his life.
Harrison told a Sydney Morning Herald reporter attending the final donation,

(02:39):
it's a sad day for me, the end of a
long run. Robin Barlow, the r H program coordinator who
recruited James to be the program's first donor, told the
newspaper every ampule of antide ever made in Australia has
James in it. Since the very first mother received her
dose at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in nine seven. It's
an enormous thing. He's saved millions of babies. Approximately seventeen

(03:03):
percent of pregnant Australian women received doses of anti d.
That number includes Harrison's own daughter, Tracy Mellowship, who was
treated in nineteen two and gave birth to a healthy
son named Scott in When Scott turned sixteen and eleven,
he gave his first blood donation, sitting next to his grandfather,
who was marking his thousand but there's a bit of

(03:24):
a twist. Harrison, who received the Medal of the Order
of Australia in nineteen nine, has had a lifelong fear
of needles. In his more than six decades of donating blood,
He's never watched a nurse insert and needle in his arm,
preferring to look away. Today's episode is based on the

(03:47):
article the Man whose Blood Saved more than two million
babies on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Christopher Hasiotus.
Brain Stuff's production of by Heart Radio in partnership with
how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Kline.
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