James Harrison - "the man with the golden hand". James Harrison - the man who saved over two million children

You can not meet often, one of them is James Harrison. This is an ordinary pensioner living in Australia. However, people around the world speak of him as a man with a golden hand. James Harrison is called that because he is an honorary donor. He has donated blood from his right arm more than 1,000 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 has always supported and been proud of him, because James Harrison became a true hero of Australia and the whole world. Currently, Harrison is already 81 years old, he 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 came to James Harrison not by chance. When he was still a teenager at the age of 14, he underwent a very difficult operation, due to which he lost a large amount of blood. After that, Harrison received a transfusion of 13 liters of donated blood. He spent 3 months in the hospital, and he was very touched by the fact that complete strangers who donated their blood for free and voluntarily helped save his life. After such a rescue, a 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 regularly donated blood.

Unique blood

"The man with the golden hand" Harrison is known for all the fact that he has the unique properties of blood. When he first came to the clinic as a donor, doctors found out that his blood has very rare, unique properties. The fact is that Harrison's blood plasma contains antibodies that can prevent Rh conflict during pregnancy.

In the event that a woman with an Rh-negative gene has a fetus with an Rh-positive gene, then this can cause an Rh conflict. This can lead to such consequences as: anemia, jaundice in the baby, and even the birth of a dead baby. The antibodies 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 was the maximum allowable. A special antibiotic is made from his blood, which is given to women with Rhesus conflict. Harrison's daughter also took an antibiotic after the birth of her first child. She is very proud of her father and is grateful to him for the health of her baby. Until now, doctors have not identified why Harrison's plasma has such properties, perhaps the operation performed at the age of 13 affected the composition of the blood.

Life insurance

After it turned out that James Harrison's blood has plasma with unique properties, his life was insured for $1 million. Since doctors at that time did not find a vaccine for this blood disease, thousands of children and babies died and could not be saved.

The blood of James Harrison gave the opportunity to live and be healthy to a huge number of people. James's wife, Barbara, died at the age of 56, but Harrison did not leave 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 way. In addition to the fact that his blood has a unique composition, he also got into the Guinness Book of Records. In his entire life, James Harrison donated blood more than 1,000 times, this is the highest record in the entire world. He was reached by our hero in 2011 at the age of 75 years.

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 entering the Guinness Book of Records, Harrison was awarded the Order of Australia.

golden hand

Usually, when they say that a person has golden hands, it means how much he is a master 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 got such a 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 a "man with a golden hand."

saving people

Thanks to James Harrison and his unique blood, more than 2 million mothers with children were saved, including his own wife and daughter. Scientists are currently isolating about 50 more people in Australia who have the same antibodies as James Harrison. This allows him to quietly retire and leave saving lives to other people with golden hands. James Harrison is a national hero of Australia as well as the whole world. His selfless example encourages a large number of young boys and girls who have reached the age of majority to do a good deed - to donate blood not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of other people. James himself believes that if every person who donates blood brings at least one friend, this will help save the lives of millions of people in 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 will even think that this is a person who is known to the whole world. Harrison leads a very ordinary life and spends all his free time with his family. People with golden hands like James Harrison don't shout about themselves on every corner, they just give what they have without asking for anything in return.

Australian donor, record holder. Due to the unusual properties of his blood, he became an extremely sought-after donor; 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 raised to several dozen. James Harrison has already saved more than 2 million; this performance is due both to the unique properties of James's blood and his outstanding passion for the process - Harrison has donated blood more than 1000 times.

When James Harrison was only 13, he went through a rather complicated operation; in the process, he had to transfuse 12 liters of blood. 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 a role donor blood played in his salvation. Already at the age of 13, Harrison was determined to become a donor; however, he managed to realize his plans in accordance with the laws only after the 18th birthday.

James donated blood for the first time in 1954. After several donations, Harrison learned a very interesting fact about his blood - as it turned out, it contained an incredibly strong and enduring antibody, the so-called Rho (D) immunoglobulin. This antibody has been used quite often in modern medicine - it was administered to mothers with a negative Rh factor in order to prevent problems with the birth of children with a positive Rh factor. This antibody helped solve problems with the incompatibility of blood types between mother and child and save newborns from deadly blood diseases. It was not possible 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 the thousands. The value of James 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 the commercial drug "RhoGAM". Harrison's plasma-based drugs are administered to an average of 1 in 10 pregnant women whose blood is potentially incompatible with that of their children.

Harrison donates not so much blood as plasma; as a result, he can visit the donor site relatively often - once every 2-3 weeks. James maintained a similar frequency for 57 years; as a result, in May 2011, the miracle donor celebrated a kind of anniversary by donating his plasma for the 1000th time.

According to rough medical estimates, Harrison's blood has already saved more than 2.4 million young lives; it is known that among the rescued was the daughter of James, Tracey (Tracey). For Harrison himself, the set record is a rather important milestone, but the donor is clearly not going to stop there - he is well aware that his plasma can save many more lives.

In 2007, Harrison spoke out rather harshly about Australia's plans to establish a blood donation process at the international level; in the opinion of the donor, this form of "opening the borders" can have the most 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 considered 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" (Australian of the Year), but he failed to win; in addition, James was nominated for the "district" version of the award - "Local Hero of New South Wales" (New South Wales Local Hero).

The Australian James Harrison is called the man with golden blood: he is known throughout the world for having saved more than two million children.

The blood of this elderly person is really worth its weight in gold, because it contains special antibodies that help to cope with the problem of the conflict between different Rh factors in mother and child.

When James was admitted to the hospital at the age of 14 for chest surgery, he received a total of about 13 liters of blood and nearly 100 stitches. It was thanks to donated blood that the guy managed to survive.

After lying in the hospital for 3 months, he decided to repay kindness: 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 at one time. And after the age of 18, James began to donate his blood and plasma regularly.


“After the operation, I literally lived in anticipation of when it would be possible to go and donate blood. I didn’t know how many people then donated their blood to help me survive. I never met them, I don’t know their names,” James Harrison says

Soon he was invited to the hospital to talk. It turned out that James' blood contains unusually strong and stable antibodies to the Rh 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 at the same time the antibodies in the mother are more active than in the child, then she (blood) begins to literally attack the child who is still in the womb. This can lead to both the development of hemolytic jaundice of the newborn and the loss of the fetus.


The antibodies found in James's blood made it possible to create a serum that, after being introduced into the mother's blood, prevents the development of antibodies in the blood of the fetus, thus relieving many problems.


According to doctors, antibodies in the blood of James could appear just when he himself received a blood transfusion after surgery as a teenager. Be that as it may, James Harrison is 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 a million dollars.


"I wanted to repay kindness for kindness," says the 80-year-old Australian. "I was ready for this and have been a blood donor for over 60 years." The man donated blood, on average, every 3 weeks. In May 2011, he donated his plasma for the 1000th time, thus setting a world record and getting into the Guinness Book of Records.


Based on James's blood, the serum has helped save more than two million lives, including the life of his own daughter. His grandson, Scott, is also a donor: having an example of his grandfather before his eyes, the guy promised to donate blood from the age of 16, and he sticks to his word. According to James, he is only glad that his act is an inspiration for others to do good for complete 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 the plasma of James Harrison, now alternative sources have been found.


"Sometimes I hear:" Oh, yes you are a hero! chew. That's all. Then I go about my business. There is nothing complicated about it. "


(according to the site kulturologia.ru)

James Harrison was born in 1935. At the age of 13, he underwent major breast surgery and needed about 13 liters of donated blood urgently. After the operation, he was in the hospital for three months. Realizing that donating blood saved his life, he made a promise to start donating blood as soon as he turned 18.
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 children to death. Harrison has donated his blood every two to three weeks since the age of 18. Now the number of transfusions is approaching 1,000. It was James's blood that became the basis for creating a vaccine called Anti-D.
At 56 years old since his first donation, he has donated blood and blood components nearly 1,000 times. This number is also a world record. After the first blood donations, it was discovered that his blood contained antibodies that could help save anemic newborn babies.
James Harrison does not intend to stop at his advanced age. When it was found that his blood had a unique composition, the donor's life was insured for one million Australian dollars. At that time in Australia, thousands of children died from such blood diseases, and tens of thousands of newborns received irreversible brain damage. This was due to the incompatibility of the blood of the mother and the blood of her unborn child with a difference in their Rh factor. 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 golden blood," is known throughout the world for having saved more than two million children. And his blood is really worth its weight in gold, as 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) went to the hospital, where he underwent a chest operation, about a hundred stitches and a total of almost 13 liters of blood were transfused. It was donated blood that helped James survive then. He was in the hospital for three months, and when he was finally released, the guy decided to repay kindness: James decided that as soon as he could 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 literally lived in anticipation that it would soon be possible to donate blood, right after the operation. I didn't know how many people donated blood so that I could survive, I never met them, I didn't know their names.»

Pretty soon, James was invited to the hospital for a talk. It turned out that his blood contains unusually strong and resistant antibodies to the Rh D antigen. These antibodies play a vital role in the survival of children who have different Rh factors from their mother. If the mother is Rh negative and the baby is Rh positive, and the antibodies in the mother's blood are more active than those of her baby, 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's blood led to the creation of a serum that, when injected into the mother's blood, helped prevent the development of antibodies in the fetus's blood, thus preventing many problems.

Doctors believe that antibodies may have appeared in the blood of James Harrison after he himself had a blood transfusion after surgery in his youth. 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 repay kindness,” says James Harrison. “And I have been a blood donor for over 60 years.” Harrison donated his plasma every three weeks on average, and in May 2011 he donated it for the 1,000th time, setting a Guinness World Record.

A serum based on James' blood has helped save over two million lives, including that of his own daughter. James' grandson, Scott, also regularly donates blood: seeing the example of his grandfather, he decided that he would donate blood from the age of 16, and still keeps his own promise. James says that he is only glad that his life inspires others to do such things for strangers.

On December 27, 2017, James will turn 81 years old, 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's plasma, but now doctors have found alternative sources.

“Some say to me - oooh, you are a hero! James Harrison laughs. But what a hero I am. I'm just sitting in my comfortable room, donating my blood. They bring me a cup of hot coffee and even something to chew on. Well, that's all - then I go my own way. Nothing complicated at all.”

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