A man with special blood was a donor for 60 years and saved 2,4 a million children.

In 1951, a 14-year-old Australian boy named James Harrison woke up after a major operation - doctors removed one of his lungs, a procedure that took several hours, after which the guy had to spend another 3 months in the hospital. But Harrison was alive, largely due to the large amount of blood transfused, writes Star Tribune.

Photo: Shutterstock

His father told Harrison that he had received blood from 13 from various donors, and the boy was filled with the fact that his life was saved by people who had never seen him.

At that time, the laws of Australia allowed to become donors only after 18 years, but Harrison, even then, in a hospital bed, vowed that when he reached the right age, he would become a donor in gratitude for his salvation.

After 4, after the operation, he kept his word and donated blood at the local branch of the Red Cross. The guy did not like needles, so he tried not to look at the process and mentally distract from the pain when inserting the needle into his hand.

Meanwhile, at that time, doctors in Australia were trying to find out the reason why thousands of pregnancies in the country ended in miscarriages, stillbirths, or brain defects in babies.

It turned out that babies suffer from hemolytic disease of the newborn or HDN. Most often, this disease occurs when a woman with a Rh-negative blood is pregnant with a child who has a positive Rh factor, and this incompatibility causes the mother's body to reject the erythrocytes of the fetus.

However, doctors concluded that HDN can be prevented by injecting a pregnant woman with a drug derived from donated blood plasma, which has rare antibodies.

Researchers combed blood banks to find a person whose blood contains these antibodies, and found in New South Wales a donor named James Harrison, whose blood was suitable for this purpose.

By that time, Harrison had regularly donated blood for more than ten years. According to him, he immediately agreed to the proposal of scientists to participate in the experiment, which would later become known as the program Anti-d.

Soon, researchers using Harrison's plasma from donated blood developed a drug called Anti-D. The first dose was given to a pregnant woman in the 1967 year, the vaccine proved to be effective.

Harrison donated blood for more than 60 years, and his plasma was used to make millions of injections. Anti-d. Since about 17% of pregnant women in Australia need these injections, researchers estimate that Harrison helped save the lives of 2,4 to millions of children in the country.

Scientists are still unable to say with certainty why Harrison's body naturally produces rare antibodies, but it is believed that this is due to the numerous blood transfusions that he received during adolescence.

The man has made more than 1 blood donations, but he does not consider himself a hero or his actions as extraordinary.

However, many others consider Harrison to be a wonderful person. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1999 and repeatedly appeared on the covers of local magazines.

In 2003, he was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the person who donated the most blood.

But for Harrison, the main thing is not recognition, but saved children, among whom is his own grandson.

"To say I'm proud of James (my father) is an understatement," Garrison's daughter Tracy Mellowship said, adding that she needed an injection in 1992 Anti-d after the birth of her first son.

“Thanks to dad, I then gave birth to another healthy boy in 1995... Thank you, dad, for giving me the opportunity to have two healthy children - your grandchildren,” the woman noted.

In 2018, Harrison tried to keep donating blood. But he was then 81 years old, he had already passed the age limit allowed for donors, and the doctors decided that it was time for him to stop donating blood in order to maintain his own health. By this time, he had made 1 173 blood donations.

Currently, there are only about 200 donors in Australia who have the antibodies necessary for their program Anti-d.

Harrison himself dreams that his record of 1 donations will soon be beaten by a similar enthusiast.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Blood business: how the US plasma market works

How to donate your body after death

28-year-old American gave birth to a child, conceived 27 years ago

'Rescuer child': how do children who were born for the sake of donation live

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