Australian blood donor dies after saving millions of babies

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James Harrison Associated Press / Photo by Australian Red Cross Lifeblood

Australian blood donor dies after saving millions of babies

Prolific blood plasma donor James Harrison passed away last month at a nursing home in New South Wales. Australian Red Cross Lifeblood on Saturday reported the death of “The Man with the Golden Arm.” He was 88 years old.

Why is Harrison famous? Harrison is credited with saving the lives of more than two million babies in Australia through his plasma donations. Beginning in 1954 at age 18, Harrison donated blood every other week until he retired in 2018 at the age of 81. By then he had donated more than 1,170 times. In 1999, the Australian government awarded Harrison the Medal of the Order of Australia for his service. The medal is the nation’s highest civilian honor.

What prompted his donations? Was his blood more useful than average? He carried a rare antibody called Anti-D which scientists use to create a medication that protects mothers and their unborn babies from potential complications during pregnancy that can arise if they have different blood types. If a mother has a negative blood type while her baby has a positive blood type, her immune system may react to the baby and cause potentially fatal anemia or jaundice, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

While mother-child blood incompatibility is rare, doctors cannot predict when it will occur. So Australian physicians offer the medication to all women with negative blood types, according to Lifeblood. About 15% of women in Australia have negative blood types, according to the Government of Western Australia Health Service.

What happens now? There are now about 200 Anti-D donors in Australia, according to Lifeblood. Meanwhile, researchers have been developing a way to grow the antibody in a lab using blood from Harrison and other donors. The team has successfully recreated his antibody and has dubbed the treatment “James in a Jar.” Scientists hope to eventually offer the treatment globally.

Dig deeper: Read Heather Frank’s report in WORLD Magazine about new research that could solve blood incompatibility problems.

Lauren Canterberry

Lauren Canterberry is a reporter for WORLD. She graduated from the World Journalism Institute and the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism, both in 2017. She worked as a local reporter in Texas and now lives in Georgia with her husband.