James Harrison - "the man with the golden hand." James Harrison - the man who saved more than two million children
Not often seen, one of them is James Harrison. This is an ordinary pensioner living in Australia. However, people all over the world talk about him as a man with a golden hand. James Harrison is called this because he is an honorary donor. He donated blood from right hand already more than 1000 times. During all this time, James Harrison saved a huge number of people from death.
Biography
James Harrison was born on December 27, 1936 in Sydney, Australia. Upon reaching adulthood, James became a blood donor and donated blood every two weeks for 60 years.
His family always supported and was proud of him, because James Harrison became a real hero of Australia and the whole world. Harrison is now 81 years old and no longer donates blood, but his selfless act has become an example for many followers.
The decision to become a donor
The decision to become a donor did not come to James Harrison by chance. When he was still a teenager at the age of 14, he underwent a very complex operation, due to which he lost a large number of blood. After this, Harrison received a transfusion of 13 liters of donor blood. He spent 3 months in the hospital, and he was very touched by the fact that complete strangers, who donated their blood free of charge and voluntarily, helped save his life. After such a rescue, the 14-year-old boy decided for himself that he would definitely become a donor. Harrison kept his promise. From the age of 18 until he was 76, James donated blood regularly.
Unique blood
"The Man with the Golden Arm" Harrison is known to everyone for having unique blood properties. When he first came to the clinic as a donor, doctors found out that his blood had very rare, unique properties. The fact is that Harrison’s blood plasma contains antibodies that can prevent Rh conflict during pregnancy.
If a woman with an Rh-negative gene gives birth to a fetus with an Rh-positive gene, this can cause an Rh conflict. This can lead to consequences such as: anemia, jaundice in the baby and even birth dead child. The antibodies contained in Harrison's blood can prevent this Rh conflict. The “man with the golden hand” James himself, having learned about this, began to donate blood as many times as possible. made from his blood special antibiotic, which is given to women with Rh-conflict. Harrison's daughter also took an antibiotic after the birth of her first child. She is very proud of her father and grateful to him for the health of her baby. Until now, doctors have not identified why Harrison’s plasma has such properties; perhaps the composition of the blood was affected by the operation performed at the age of 13.
Life insurance
After it was discovered that James Harrison's blood contained plasma with unique properties, his life was insured for $1 million. Since doctors at that time had not found a vaccine for this blood disease, thousands of children and infants died and could not be saved.
James Harrison's blood gave the opportunity to live and be healthy a huge number of people. James's wife Barbara died at the age of 56, but Harrison did not abandon his life's work, he continued to give people a chance to be healthy and happy.
World record
James Harrison is an unusual donor in every sense. In addition to the fact that his blood has a unique composition, he was also included in the Guinness Book of Records. Throughout his life, James Harrison donated blood more than 1,000 times, the highest record in the entire world. It was achieved by our hero in 2011 at the age of 75.
This man donated blood for 60 years, which made it possible to save the lives of millions of people. He visited the blood station 2-3 times a week, as often as possible. In addition to being included in the Guinness Book of Records, Harrison was awarded the Order of Australia.
Golden hand
Usually, when they say that a person has golden hands, they mean how masterful he is in his field, and that he always does everything well. In addition, there is an American film "The Man with the Golden Arm". However, in the case of James Harrison, the meaning is somewhat different. He received this nickname due to the fact that he donated blood almost all his life, and it contains plasma with unique properties. All this allows us to speak of James Harrison as “the man with the golden hand.”
Saving people
Thanks to James Harrison and his unique blood, more than 2 million mothers and children were saved, including his own wife and daughter. Scientists have now identified about 50 other people in Australia who have the same antibodies as James Harrison. This allows him to retire peacefully and leave saving lives to other people with golden hands. James Harrison is a national hero in Australia, as well as around the world. His selfless example encourages a large number of young boys and girls who have reached adulthood to do good deed- donate blood not for your own benefit, but for the benefit of other people. James himself believes that if every person who donates blood brings at least one friend, it will help save the lives of millions of people around the world.
James Harrison can be called not only a donor with a golden hand, but also a man with a big heart. IN Everyday life none of the people would even think that this is a person who is known throughout the world. Harrison leads a very ordinary life and has everything of his own. free time spends with his family. People with golden hands, like James Harrison, do not shout about themselves on every corner, they simply give what they have without demanding anything in return.
Australian donor, record holder. In view of unusual properties became an extremely sought-after donor of his blood; donated blood and plasma more than 1,000 times in his life and saved the lives of more than 2,000,000 babies in total.
By donating blood once, a person can save one or two lives; By becoming a regular donor, the number of lives saved can be increased to several dozen. James Harrison has already saved more than 2 million; Such effectiveness is explained both by the unique properties of James’ blood and by his outstanding passion for the process - Harrison has already donated blood more than 1,000 times.
When James Harrison was just 13, he went through quite a complex operation; in the process he had to have 12 liters of blood transfused. After the operation, James spent about 3 months in the hospital; During this time, he managed to fairly rethink his life and realize how important role played in his salvation donor blood. Already at the age of 13, Harrison was determined to become a donor; however, he was able to implement his plans in accordance with the laws only after his 18th birthday.
James donated blood for the first time in 1954. After several donations, Harrison learned very much about his blood interesting fact– as it turned out, it contained an incredibly strong and resilient antibody, the so-called Rho(D) immunoglobulin. The antibody is in modern medicine was used quite often - it was administered to mothers with negative Rh factor in order to prevent problems during the birth of children with positive Rh factor. This antibody helped solve problems with incompatibility of blood types between mother and child and save newborns from deadly blood diseases. It was impossible to overestimate the importance of this antibody; as a consequence, Harrison's importance as a donor increased a hundredfold.
By regularly donating his unique blood, Harrison has saved the lives of newborns and unborn children by literally thousands. James's value as a donor was so high that Harrison's life was even insured for $1 million. The Australian's blood was used not only for transfusions, but also for complex biological experiments; the result of these experiments was a commercial medicine"RhoGAM". Drugs based on Harrison plasma are administered to an average of one in 10 pregnant women whose blood could potentially be incompatible with the blood of their children.
Harrison donates plasma rather than blood; as a result, he can visit the donor site relatively often - once every 2-3 weeks. James maintained this frequency for 57 years; As a result, in May 2011, the miracle donor celebrated a kind of anniversary, donating his plasma for the 1000th time.
According to rough estimates by doctors, Harrison's blood has already saved more than 2.4 million young lives; It is known that among those rescued was James's daughter, Tracey. For Harrison himself, the record set is quite an important milestone, but the donor clearly does not intend to stop there - he understands perfectly well that his plasma can save many more lives.
In 2007, Harrison spoke out rather harshly about Australia's plans to establish an international blood donation process; According to the donor, this form of “opening the borders” could have a very negative impact on the number of volunteers. It should be noted that this project was not proposed by chance - Australia entered into new trade agreements with the States and was considering new opportunities for organizing international trade.
For his achievements in the donor field, James Harrison has already been awarded the Order of Australia medal. It is also known that Harrison was nominated for the title of “Australian of the Year”, but he failed to win; In addition, James was nominated for the “district” version of the award – “New South Wales Local Hero”.
Australian James Harrison is called the man with golden blood: he is known throughout the world for saving more than two million children.
The blood of this elderly person is truly worth its weight in gold, since it contains special antibodies that help cope with the problem of conflict between different Rh factors in mother and child.
When James was hospitalized at age 14 and needed surgery for chest, he received a total of about 13 liters of blood transfusion and almost 100 stitches. It was thanks to donor blood that the guy managed to survive.
After being in the hospital for 3 months, he decided to return the favor: he decided to donate blood as soon as he was allowed after recovery, in order to save someone’s life in the same way that complete strangers saved his life. And after 18 years old, James began to donate his blood and plasma regularly. 
“After the operation, I literally lived in anticipation of when I could go and donate blood. I did not know how many people then donated their blood to help me survive. I have never met them, I don’t know what their names are,” – says James Harrison.
Soon he was invited to the hospital to talk. It turned out that James' blood contained unusually strong and stable antibodies to the Rhesus factor D antigen. These antibodies are extremely important for the survival of children who have different Rh factors from their mother. If the mother has a negative Rh factor, and the child has a positive one, and the antibodies in the mother are more active than in the child, then it (the blood) begins to literally attack the child who is still in the womb. This can lead to both development hemolytic jaundice newborn and fetal loss. 
The antibodies discovered in James' blood made it possible to create a serum that, after being introduced into the mother's blood, helps prevent the development of antibodies in the fetus' blood, thus eliminating many problems. 
According to doctors, antibodies in James' blood could have appeared just when he himself received a blood transfusion after surgery in adolescence. Be that as it may, James Harrison is the first donor of plasma, on the basis of which the Rho (D) immunoglobulin vaccine was created. His blood helped save lives, so the Australian government decided to insure him own life for a million dollars. 
“I wanted to return the favor,” says the 80-year-old Australian. “I was ready for this, and I have been a blood donor for more than 60 years.” The man donated blood on average every 3 weeks. In May 2011, he donated his plasma for the 1000th time, thereby setting a world record and getting into the Guinness Book of Records. 
The serum created from James' blood helped save more than two million lives, including the life of his own daughter. His grandson, Scott, is also a donor: having the example of his grandfather before his eyes, the guy promised to donate blood from the age of 16, and sticks to his word. According to James, he is only glad that his act is an inspiration for others to do good for absolutely strangers.
On December 27, the elderly Australian will turn 81 years old and, according to the rules in force in Australia, from this age he will no longer be able to be a donor. Of course, doctors prepared for this in advance: if until 2015 all anti-Rhesus drugs in the country were made from James Harrison’s plasma, now alternative sources have been found. 
“I sometimes hear: “Oh, you’re a hero!” says James Harrison. “Well, what kind of hero am I? I just sit down on a comfortable couch in a clean room and donate my blood. They treat me to a cup of delicious coffee and even give me something chew. That's all. Then I go about my business. There's nothing complicated about it." 
(based on materials from the site kulturologia.ru)
James Harrison was born in 1935. At the age of 13, he underwent major breast surgery and urgently needed about 13 liters of donated blood. After the operation he was in the hospital for three months. Realizing that donated blood saved his life, he made a promise to start donating blood as soon as he turned 18 years old. 
James Harrison has an unusually rare type of blood; the antibodies contained in his blood save babies from hemolytic disease of the newborn, which often leads to death in children. Harrison has donated his blood every two to three weeks since he was 18 years old. Now the number of transfusions is approaching 1,000. It was James’s blood that became the basis for the creation of a vaccine called Anti-D. 
At 56 years old, he has donated blood and blood components nearly 1,000 times since his first donation. This number is also a world record. After the first blood donations, it was discovered that his blood contained antibodies that could help save newborn children with anemia. 
James Harrison does not intend to stop in his old age. When it was established that his blood had unique composition, the donor's life was insured for one million Australian dollars. At the time, thousands of children were dying from similar blood diseases in Australia, and tens of thousands of newborns were suffering permanent brain damage. This was due to the incompatibility of the mother’s blood and the blood of her unborn child when their Rh factor differed. And this in turn often led to miscarriages. James Harrison continued to donate blood even after the death of his wife Barbara, with whom he lived for 56 years in a happy marriage. When he initially started donating blood, his life was insured for $1 million. His blood helped save about 2,000,000 children and their young mothers with Rhesus conflict.
80 year old James Harrison, also known as “the man with the golden blood,” is known throughout the world for saving more than two million children. And his blood is truly worth its weight in gold, since it contains special antibodies that can cope with the problem of conflict between different Rh factors in mother and child.
At the age of fourteen James Harrison(James Harrison) was taken to the hospital, where he underwent chest surgery, received about a hundred stitches and was transfused with a total of almost 13 liters of blood. It was donated blood that helped James survive. He stayed in the hospital for three months, and when he was finally released, the guy decided to return the favor: James decided that as soon as he was able to donate blood, he would definitely do it to save someone's life, just like at one time unknown people saved his own life.
After James turned 18, he began donating blood and plasma regularly. " At that time, I was literally living in anticipation that I would soon be able to donate blood, right after the operation. I didn’t know how many people donated blood so that I could survive, I had never met them, I didn’t know their names.»
Soon enough, James was invited to the hospital for a conversation. It turned out that his blood contains unusually strong and stable antibodies to the Rhesus factor D antigen. These antibodies play a vital role in the survival of children who have different Rh factors from their mother. If the mother has a negative Rh and the child has a positive Rh, and the antibodies in the mother’s blood are more active than those of her child, the mother’s blood begins to literally attack the baby’s blood while he is still in the womb.
The consequence of such a reaction can be both the development of hemolytic jaundice in newborns and the loss of the fetus. However, the antibodies found in James' blood allowed the creation of a serum that, when administered into the mother's blood, helped prevent the development of antibodies in the fetus' blood, thereby preventing many problems.
Doctors believe the antibodies may have appeared in James Harrison's blood after he himself received a blood transfusion following surgery as a teenager. One way or another, he became the first plasma donor, on the basis of which the Rho (D) immunoglobulin vaccine was created. His blood helped save lives, so the Australian government decided to insure his own life for one million dollars.
“I was ready and willing to return the favor,” says James Harrison. “And I have been a blood donor for over 60 years.” Harrison donated his plasma on average every three weeks, and in May 2011 he donated for the thousandth time, thus creating a real record that was included in the Guinness Book of Records.
The serum, created from James' blood, helped save more than two million lives, including the life of his own daughter. James's grandson, Scott, also donates blood regularly: following his grandfather's example, he decided that he would donate blood from the age of 16, and still sticks to his own promise. James says he's glad his life inspires others to do such things for strangers.
On December 27, 2017, James will turn 81, and from this age he will no longer be able to donate blood - these are the rules in Australia. Fortunately, doctors prepared for this situation in advance. Even before 2015, all anti-Rhesus drugs in Australia were made from Harrison plasma, but doctors have now found alternative sources.
“Some people tell me - oooh, you are a hero! - James Harrison laughs. - But what a hero I am. I just sit in a comfortable room and give my blood. They bring me a cup of hot coffee and even something to chew. Well, that’s it - then I go on my way. Nothing complicated at all.”
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