Man with Rare Blood Saves Millions

Creative Minority Report ^ | February 19, 2014

[NYer]

This is a great story.

Oddity Central reports a story about an amazing man. He's not just special because his blood is rare. It's what he's done with it:

74-year-old James Harrison is a superhero in his own right. Granted, he doesn’t wear a cape or spin webs, but he has saved over two million babies’ lives in the past 54 years. And in real life, it doesn’t get cooler than that.

Australian-born James has a very special type of blood – the plasma contains an antibody that cures babies of Rhesus disease, a severe form of anemia. He has been donating blood every few weeks since he was 18 years old, and has done it over 1,000 times now. James never fails to make a donation; even when he’s holidaying, he makes sure to stop by a donor center. “I’ve donated on the Sunshine Coast, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, NSW, wherever I go and I get around the place with the caravan club I’m in.”

“I’ve never thought about stopping. Never,” he said. His initial motivation for donating was a major chest surgery that he underwent at age 14, for which he needed 13 liters of blood. “I was in the hospital for three months. The blood I received saved my life so I made a pledge to give blood when I was 18. I said to my father that I would give blood myself as soon as possible and I stayed true to my word.”

Seems like a wonderful guy. I'm glad I came upon this story.

[The Right wing Infidel]

wow that is amazing

[Salamander]

Literally awesome.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Wow. Just wow.

[Jane Long]

Thanks for posting. Amazing man with a wonderful gift.

[inpajamas]

And how many lives has Jesus blood saved? At least this man does what he can which is much more than most would do

[Fledermaus]

This was the plot of an old TV series. A guy had blood that would cure about anything. Of course he was on the run from evil billionaires (or millionaires back then) wanting his “immortality” for themselves.

[Cold Heart]

BTTT

[Cyber Liberty]

It’s a lot more than I have done, so my hat is off to him.

[tflabo]

His blood is the gift that keeps on giving. What a story.

[meatloaf]

Wasn’t there a fictional story about a woman that had the ability to transmit a disease curing infection though intercourse. So that became her life’s work. She ****** men to life.

[CrazyIvan]

Wow! Nothing special about what I bleed, but I have donated 23+ gallons of it.

[KarlInOhio]

Here's a description of the disease. Wikipedia article: Rh disease

[Secret Agent Man]

i am surprised they haven’t found a way to derive antibodies his blood produces, all this time. good for him, though.

[isom35]

Christopher George starred in a tv series titled The Immortal sometime after Rat Patrol where his blood was special (immortality), so some George Soros type guy sent thugs and goons out to capture him each week.

[srmorton]

The antibody they are referring to is Anti-D, which is not really a rare antibody, but it IS rare to find it in a male. Before RhoGam became available, women (like my own mother) who were Rh negative could form an antibody to the Rh D antigen if they became pregnant with an Rh positive child. In subsequent pregnancies, that antibody could travel through the placenta and attack the blood cells of a baby who was Rh positive. This has largely been prevented by the administration of RhoGam (which is simply anti-D in a vial) within 72 hours of giving birth to a Rh positive baby. The best source of Rhogam is the plasma of people who like the man in the story have an anti-D antibody in their plasma. In the case of a miscarriage or abortion, the women should be given the RhoGam even though the blood type of the child is not known because the odds are that the baby was Rh positive (as is 85% of the population). Rhogam can also be given prenatally to a pregnant woman who is at least 28 weeks gestation. That is what they did with my daughter who is A neg and has a son who will be a year old in April.

I can relate to this man's desire to donate blood in appreciation for what was done for him. When my daughter and her twin sisters were born in 1980, I had to have a C-section which went fine, but, for some reason, I began to bleed afterward. I had to have a hysterectomy later that same day to get me to stop bleeding, but in the process I received 10 units of blood in about a 6 hour period. A normal person only has 5-6 units in their entire body, so, obviously, I would not be alive today had it not been for those 10 "strangers" who gave the gift of life to me. I now give blood every eight weeks and have done so for many years. I am O pos which is the type that is most in demand. My husband asks me from time to time, "Haven't you donated enough?" My answer is that I can never donate enough to repay those 10 people who saved my life that day!

[iowamark]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065303/

[Verginius Rufus]

There was a couple I met once (both now deceased), who had this problem. (The husband was someone my father served under in WWII.) Their first child survived, but their second one died soon after birth—they thought the second one might have lived except for a mistake by the hospital.

[GeronL]

How did they discover that this individuals blood did that??

[srmorton]

My mother lost her second child (a boy) also. They were afraid my older sister, who was born in 1945 and had a very severe reaction, would not live. They wanted my mother to have a tubal ligation. My father was a chaplain in the Navy and was not there to give his permission for the surgery, so I was born five years later. I also had a reaction, but they knew how to do an exchange transfusion by then so I fared pretty well. I often think about my father having to give permission when I consider that today's “modern woman” does not even have to tell the father of a baby that she decides to abort, although he would have to pay child support if she decided to keep the baby.