Prolific blood donor who saved 2.4 million babies dies at 88
Prolific blood donor who saved 2.4 million babies dies at 88
James Harrison of Australia, whose blood had a rare antibody, donated 1,173 times over six decades, potentially saving millions of lives. He said he hoped someone would break his record.
Summary
James Harrison, an Australian blood donor known as the "man with the golden arm," has died at 88.
His rare antibody helped create the anti-D medication, preventing a fatal blood disorder in unborn babies.
Over 60 years, he donated blood and plasma 1,173 times, contributing to over 3 million doses of anti-D given to 2 million mothers.
Honored with the Medal of the Order of Australia, Harrison leaves behind a lasting medical legacy. Researchers are now working to develop a lab-grown version of the life-saving antibody.
I'm one of those babies so this guy was my hero. RIP dude
That is quite a legacy.
Not to downplay the quite frankly astounding achievement of James and his cohort of Anti-D donors, but I'm surprised that nobody has figured out how to make an synthetic anti-D in the 60 years he was donating blood for
Researchers have been working on using his blood and that of some others to create a synthetic source but aren't there yet. Even when/if they create the lab-grown antibodies, they will have to be tested for safety before you can start injecting them into pregnant women. Remember thalidomide? (Well probably not, but we know the story of how badly that went.)
There are some things that are really hard to make synthetically. There's an endotoxin test using horseshoe crab blood, which for a long time has not been replaced by any other way of testing. I think it was an issue during the pandemic because supply of that blood was not consistent anymore or something like that, I might remember that part wrong though.
You'd make a lot of money if you could make a test as good as this but cheap.
What he donated was probably sufficient so it might have been hard to find millions in funding for something that this guy provided for free.
If ever there were people chosen by god it would be people that, not insert yet another dictator.
Rest in peace, you king.
Because that’s what heroes do.
How did they discover he has this antibody? I don't think that's a standard part of testing anywhere