{"id":27542,"date":"2025-03-03T07:38:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T07:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=27542"},"modified":"2025-03-03T07:39:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T07:39:50","slug":"man-with-golden-arms-dies-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2025\/03\/man-with-golden-arms-dies-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Man with ‘golden arms’ dies in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MONITORING (SW) – One of the world’s most prolific blood donors, whose plasma saved the lives of more than 2 million babies, has died.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Harrison died in his sleep at a nursing home in New South Wales, Australia on 17 February, his family said on Monday. He was 88.<\/p>\n

Known in Australia as the man with the golden arm, Harrison’s blood contained a rare antibody, Anti-D, which is used to make medication given to pregnant mothers whose blood is at risk of attacking their unborn babies.<\/p>\n

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service who paid tribute to Harrison, said he had pledged to become a donor after receiving transfusions while undergoing a major chest surgery when he was 14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He started donating his blood plasma when he was 18 and continued doing so every two weeks until he was 81.<\/p>\n

In 2005, he had the world record for most blood plasma donated – a title he held until 2022 when he was overtaken by a man in the US.<\/p>\n

Harrison’s daughter, Tracey Mellowship, said her father was “very proud to have saved so many lives, without any cost or pain”.<\/p>\n

“He always said it does not hurt, and the life you save could be your own,” she said.<\/p>\n

Mellowship and two of Harrison’s grandchildren are also recipients of anti-D immunizations.<\/p>\n

“It made [James] happy to hear about the many families like ours, who existed because of his kindness,” she said.<\/p>\n

Anti-D jabs protect unborn babies from a deadly blood disorder called haemolytic disease of the foetus and newborn, or HDFN.<\/p>\n

The condition occurs at pregnancy when the mother’s red blood cells are incompatible with that of their growing baby.<\/p>\n

The mother’s immune system then sees the baby’s blood cells as a threat and produces antibodies to attack them. This can seriously harm the baby, causing severe anaemia, heart failure, or even death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before anti-D interventions were developed in the mid-1960s, one in two babies diagnosed with HDFN died.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It is unclear how Harrison’s blood came to be so rich in anti-D, but some reports said it had to do with the massive blood transfusion he received at 14.<\/p>\n

There are fewer than 200 anti-D donors in Australia, but they help an estimated 45,000 mothers and their babies every year, according to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, also known as Lifeblood.<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the world’s most prolific blood donors, whose plasma saved the lives of more than 2 million babies, has died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":27543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,984,194,218,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-world","category-health","category-headline"],"views":63,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27542"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27546,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27542\/revisions\/27546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}