Posted on 05/12/2018 1:52:28 PM PDT by ameribbean expat
In 1951, a 14-year-old Australian boy named James Harrison awoke from a major chest operation...alive, thanks in large part to a vast quantity of transfused blood he had received, his father explained. *** After turning 18, Harrison (began) donating whole blood regularly with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.
Meanwhile, doctors in Australia were struggling to figure out why thousands of births in the country were resulting in miscarriages, stillbirths or brain defects for the babies.
The babies, it turned out, were suffering from Haemolytic Disease of the Newborn, or HDN. The condition most often arises when a woman with an Rh negative blood type becomes pregnant with a baby who has Rh positive blood, and the incompatibility causes the mother’s body to reject the fetus’s red blood cells.
Doctors realized it might be possible to prevent HDN by injecting the pregnant woman with a treatment made from donated plasma with a rare antibody.
Researchers scoured blood banks to see whose blood might contain this antibody — and found a donor in New South Wales by the name of James Harrison. *** Before long, researchers had developed an injection called Anti-D using plasma from Harrison’s donated blood. The first dose was given to a pregnant woman at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1967.
Harrison continued donating and his plasma has been used to make millions of Anti-D injections...17 percent of pregnant women in Australia require the anti-D injections, the blood service estimates Harrison has helped 2.4 million babies in the country.
“Every ampul of Anti-D ever made in Australia has James in it,”. *** On Friday it was his last trip to the donation center. At age 81 the blood service had decided Harrison should stop donating to protect his health. *** 1,173 total blood donations in his lifetime.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Only a Fool would make that suggestion......Oh wait,,,,,
“Man with the golden arm” is a code for heroin taking.
This was a story-line on the FOX TV show “911.”
One of the paramedics, who was afraid of needles, had the antibody and decided to donated plasma to save babies.
Indeed commendable. More: https://www.smh.com.au/healthcare/final-donation-for-man-whose-blood-helped-save-2-4-million-babies-20180511-p4zerp.html
Mr Harrison naturally produces the rare combination of RhD-negative blood and Rh+ antibodies, making him the ideal donor.
John Shakespeare
“Every ampule of Anti-D ever made in Australia has James in it,” said Robyn Barlow the Rh program coordinator who recruited James, the program’s first donor.
“Since the very first mother received her dose at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1967.
“It’s an enormous thing ... He has saved millions of babies. I cry just thinking about it,” she said.
Jemma Falkenmire at the Australian Red Cross Blood Donor Service said “very few people have the these antibodies in such strong concentrations.
“His body produces a lot of them and when he donates his body produces more,” Ms Falkenmire said.
Scientists suspect this has something to do with the 13 units of blood transfusions he received after undergoing major chest surgery when he was 14 years old...
Roughly 17 per cent of pregnant women receive Anti-D, including Mr Harrison’s own daughter...
“He really is remarkable,” Ms Ismay says, “keeping our babies safe.”
Ms Barlow agrees. “We’ll never see his kind again ... that he has been well and fit and his veins strong enough to continue to donate for so long is very, very rare,” she said.
Australia’s Anti-D program is wholly dependent on just 160 donors. Recruiting new donors is a laborious task.
Attempts to create a synthetic version has so far failed.
Did they transfuse Rh Positive blood during his surgery? That's the only reason he would make Anti-D. 13 units is a lot - must have been a massive transfusion protocol where they automatically switched him to Rh Positive Blood.
Since I’m Rh neg and all my children are pos I’ve received several of the rhoGam shots.
You are correct. All of my children were positive and I am AB negative. I had the Rhgam shot after my first, second and third babies and all were just fine.
As a Rh Negative mother, I offer my heart felt thanks. You are an angel among us.
This seems like a very high percentage, is it this high around the world?
He used his arm to save lives, not destroy them, including his own, a hero, vs heroin.
His sacrifice was not a one-time act, a lifelong giving. And yet he was able to do so effectually because of a rare component he was given, and could donate in relative ease, and receive gratitude for it by many.
Meanwhile there are others who give of themselves in life long greater (in terms of sacrifice, effort and pain) service, and who may not see how effectual it is, but God will reward the elect according to their labor down in Christ, both in terms of quality quantity and and sacrifice. Yet it is all of grace, as in salvation, for both motivation and ability comers from on High. To God be the glory.
Yep, the theme song that was covered many many times.
The name is ALREADY OWNED despite some on this thread being ignorant of it.
I do not know. That's a question for experts. But I do know that,
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:23-25)
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