Had not heard of this gentleman until today and not seen anything here on him. But short version: James Harrison, with his long time willingness to donate his rather special blood, has prevented the deaths of over 2 million babies since he was a young man. Story here: http://www.newsforage.com/2014/09/australian-man-has-saved-over-24.html
James Harrison - the Man with the Golden Arm
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casebro
Penultimate Amazing
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1000 times has has donated PLASMA, not blood. And so far he is the only source in Oz. But America is doing fine without his arm. Dunno how, maybe using a pig analog to human serum?
And it's major use is in the mothers, preventing the disease in the children via mother's immune system- actually, preventing the mother's immune system from going hay wire.
You can look it up on Wiki, it's called Rhesus Disease, when the Mom has a different Rh factor than the baby. Rh is the +/- in your blood type. Like AB-. I think my Mom called them Blue Babies? About 60 years ago?
Anyhow Kudos to him. But I suspect that in today's world more donors with those genes will be found. If even necessary?
And it's major use is in the mothers, preventing the disease in the children via mother's immune system- actually, preventing the mother's immune system from going hay wire.
You can look it up on Wiki, it's called Rhesus Disease, when the Mom has a different Rh factor than the baby. Rh is the +/- in your blood type. Like AB-. I think my Mom called them Blue Babies? About 60 years ago?
Anyhow Kudos to him. But I suspect that in today's world more donors with those genes will be found. If even necessary?
casebro
Penultimate Amazing
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- Jun 14, 2005
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- 19,788
Info on the manufactured alternatives:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rho(D)_immune_globulin
They used Harrison's IgG as a model. But the article didn't go into whether they actually manufacture it, or sort it out of donated blood and plasma.
On thing that is a fairly hidden fact is that much donated blood in not transfused, but is used to make other products- like IgGs. And that is why there are Plasma Donation centers that pay for plasma.
The blood bank always said they wanted my rare blood type, AB, but we are universal receptors. They would call Dad for his B, and I went along to give a pound too. But they never called me in with my 10x as rare AB-.
Hmm, Mom was concerned about making Blue Babies that would need transfusions, back in the 40's. I wonder what my parent's Rh factors were? One +, one-? I know Dad was B, Mom O, and us kids have most of them- B, O, AB, um A? A simple blood type paternity test would have been meaningless.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rho(D)_immune_globulin
They used Harrison's IgG as a model. But the article didn't go into whether they actually manufacture it, or sort it out of donated blood and plasma.
On thing that is a fairly hidden fact is that much donated blood in not transfused, but is used to make other products- like IgGs. And that is why there are Plasma Donation centers that pay for plasma.
The blood bank always said they wanted my rare blood type, AB, but we are universal receptors. They would call Dad for his B, and I went along to give a pound too. But they never called me in with my 10x as rare AB-.
Hmm, Mom was concerned about making Blue Babies that would need transfusions, back in the 40's. I wonder what my parent's Rh factors were? One +, one-? I know Dad was B, Mom O, and us kids have most of them- B, O, AB, um A? A simple blood type paternity test would have been meaningless.