Man Whose Blood Helped Save More Than 2.4 Million Babies Enters a Well-Deserved Retirement

At the age of 14, James Harrison needed to have one of his lungs removed. He was able to survive the surgery thanks to a large amount of donor blood from strangers. After he recovered, Harrison wanted to pay it forward and give blood to others in need, but Australian law prohibited him from doing so until he was 18. He vowed that when he was old enough, he would become a blood donor. When Harrison turned 18, he fulfilled his promise. He didn’t just donate once, however; he gave blood every few weeks for the next six decades. First Donor in the Anti-D Program Early in his donor career, researchers discovered that Harrison’s blood contained a large amount of a rare antibody that could treat hemolytic disease of the newborn, or HDN. HDN is caused by Rh (D) incompatibility, a situation in which a woman whose blood does not have the Rh factor (D) protein becomes pregnant with a baby who is Rh-positive. In some pregnancies with Rh incompatibility, the mother’s…

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