James Christopher Harrison

James Christopher Harrison (born December 27, 1936 ), also known as Man with the golden arm ("the man with the golden arm"), is an Australian blood donor who became known for his unusual blood plasma , which is used in the treatment of rhesus Incompatibility was used.

Harrison donated blood and plasma 1,173 times for over sixty years and up to the medical age limit. The Red Cross estimates that its plasma could treat 2.4 million children and save the lives of thousands of them.

biography

James Harrison was born on December 27, 1936. At the age of 14, he had a major operation that removed two-thirds of his left lung . He needs thirteen blood products to do this . After the operation, he stayed in the hospital for three months. Realizing that the blood was saving his life, he decided to donate blood himself when he came of age. In 1954 he donated for the first time.

Discovery and Donation

After a few years it was discovered that his blood contained the very rare anti-D immunoglobulin and had an unusually high titer of it . Anti-D immunoglobulin is given to rhesus- negative mothers with rhesus-unknown or rhesus-positive babies during and after pregnancy to prevent the formation of antibodies against the blood of the rhesus-positive child. This affects 17% of all expectant mothers in Australia. When he started donating, thousands of babies died of this disease every year in Australia.

His plasma donations made it possible to treat this rhesus incompatibility. This was judged to be so significant that after the discovery, his life was insured for a million AUD .

A first transfusion of his plasma took place in 1967 at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, and saved a first baby. For many years he was the only plasma donor for anti-D immunoglobulin. When he last donated, there were about 200 other donors worldwide, but all of them had lower concentrations of the immunoglobulin. It is believed that this is a result of the numerous blood transfusions he received.

Subsequent research on his donations created the commercially used anti-D immunoglobulin, also known as RhoGAM.

Its blood plasma derivatives have since been used to treat pregnant women whose blood may be incompatible with the child's blood. His daughter Tracey was among the recipients.

For each plasma donation, 800 ml of blood plasma are taken. In contrast to whole blood, this can be done every four days. In May 2011, for example, he was able to donate for the 1000th time, an average of every three weeks for 57 years. Commenting on his success, he said:

"I could say it's the only record that I hope is broken, because if they do, they have donated a thousand donations."

"I would say that this is the only record that I hope will be broken because if it does, there will have been a thousand donations."

On May 11, 2018, at the age of 81, he made his last donation in Sydney. 63 years after his first blood donation, a medical age restriction resulted in the end. In total, it enabled the production of 3 million doses of anti-D immunoglobulin.

"Now I have to look for something else to do on Fridays."

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Free trade criticism

In 2007 Harrison was critical of plans to make the Australian plasma donation available to foreign organizations. He believed that opening the market would discourage volunteers from donating. The opening of trade stems from a free trade agreement with the United States .

Honors

On June 7, 1999, Harrison received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). He was nominated for Australian of the Year , but did not win that title. In 2011 Harrison was nominated for the New South Wales Local Heroes Division of the Australian of the Year. On November 25, 2015, an asteroid was named after him: (22136) Jamesharrison .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} 'Man with the golden arm' saves 2million babies in half a century of donating rare type of blood . In: Daily Mail . March 23, 2010. Retrieved April 2, 2010.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} 'Saving Lives' . In: TEN News . Retrieved January 12, 2013.
3. ↑ James Harrison: Australian Man With Special Blood Type Saves 2 Million Babies . In: The Huffington Post . March 24, 2010. Retrieved April 2, 2010.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Out after 1,174 blood donations for 81-year-old Australians . In: ORF . May 13, 2018. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
5. ↑ James Harrison OAM . australianoftheyear.org.au. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
6. ↑ Luc Ruidant: Son sang irrigue les veines de plus de 2.4 millions de bébés! Le Journal du Medecin (Belgium), edition 2547 of June 22, 2018, page 36
7. ↑ ^{a b} James Harrison: FTA threatens blood donor system . In: The Australian . January 19, 2007. Retrieved on April 3, 2010.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
8. ↑ It's an Honor - OAM