Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. When currently eighty one year old John Harrison was just fourteen years old, he received a blood transfusion following a major chest surgery. He had a lung removed and thirteen units or pints of other people's blood that's nearly two gallons, made their life saving way
into his veins. That transfusion inspired Harrison's later generosity. He promised to begin donating once he turned eighteen, and did so weakly until May eleven, eighteen, when, according to the Australian Red Cross, he gave his final donation. He's fine, that's just the maximum age in Australia for giving blood. Harrison's prolific donation is notable enough that in two thousand three, Guinness World Records recognized his achievement for the most blood
donated by a single person. His record was broken in but would say it's still nothing to sneeze at, and Harrison's blood is notable not only for quantity, but also for quality. He's credited with saving the lives of more than two million Australian babies. Harrison, known in Australia as The man with the golden arm produces a rare and powerful antibody in his blood called r H d immunoglobin or anti D. It protects unborn babies from the potentially
deadly condition r H incompatibility. When a pregnant woman with an r H negative blood type carries a baby with RH positive blood, the woman's body mistakenly treats the baby's red blood cells like an outside threat. Her body produces antibodies to combat what it perceives as an invader, with potentially deadly effect. Miscarriage, still birth, fetal brain damage, and
anemia are all possible outcomes. Australian doctors have theorized that the transfusion that Harrison received as a team may have contributed to the unique composition of the blood his body
now produces. Harrison made his final contribution at the town Hall Donor Center in Sydney, Australia, surrounded by mothers and their children who had benefited from the treatment, as well as large silver balloons in the shape of the numerals one, one seven, three, one thousand, one hundred and seventy three being the number of times Harrison donated blood throughout his life. Harrison told a Sydney Morning Herald reporter attending the final donation. It's a sad day for me, the end of a
long run. Robin Barlow, the r H program coordinator who recruited James to be the program's first donor, told the newspaper every ampule of anti D ever made in Australia has James in it. Since the very first mother received her dose at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in nineteen sixty seven.
It's an enormous thing. He's saved millions of babies. Approximately seventeen percent of pregnant Australian women received doses of anti D. That number includes Harrison's own daughter, Tracy Mellowship, who was treated in nineteen two and gave birth to a healthy son named Scott in When Scott turned sixteen and eleven, he gave his first blood donation, sitting next to his grandfather who was marking his thousand. But there's a bit
of a twist. Harrison, who received the Metal of the Order of Australia in nineteen ninety nine, has had a lifelong fear of needles. In his more than six decades of donating blood, He's never watched a nurse insert and needle in his arm, preferring to look away. Today's episode was written by Christopher Hasiotis and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other heartwarming topics, literally because of the bloody visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com