James Harrison, Who Has Helped Save Lives of More Than 2.4 Million Australian Babies, Retires (cnn.com) 97
Most people, when they retire, get a gold watch. James Harrison deserves so much more than that. From a report: Harrison, known as the "Man With the Golden Arm," has donated blood nearly every week for 60 years. After all those donations, the 81-year-old Australian man "retired" Friday. The occasion marked the end of a monumental chapter. According to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, he has helped saved the lives of more than 2.4 million Australian babies. Harrison's blood has unique, disease-fighting antibodies that have been used to develop an injection called Anti-D, which helps fight against rhesus disease. This disease is a condition where a pregnant woman's blood actually starts attacking her unborn baby's blood cells. In the worst cases, it can result in brain damage, or death, for the babies.
It was a good run (Score:1)
But we cannot rely on a lucky individual realizing their luck and sharing so readily.
Why do so many Australians get rhesus? Even over 60 years that is a lot for something so serious.
Is there another way to fight this disease?
Hopefullly special blood isn't the only solution.
Re:It was a good run (Score:5, Interesting)
We should use CRISPR to splice his gene for the anit-body into another donor.
A bone marrow transplant might also work.
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You're a fucking... oh wait, this is a gross misuse of the word fucking. There is no sex going on.
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We should use CRISPR to splice his gene for the anit-body into another donor.
A bone marrow transplant might also work.
Assuming he only gets usual donation rates, then the guy should get an award. That is an impressive lifetime of service that I doubt anyone could even begin to aspire to. Sure it was a fluke of genetics probably, but he was consistent, and went every week...
Blood donors in Australia get $0.
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Assuming he only gets usual donation rates, then the guy should get an award. That is an impressive lifetime of service that I doubt anyone could even begin to aspire to. Sure it was a fluke of genetics probably, but he was consistent, and went every week...
Blood donors in Australia get $0.
Not entirely true. You do get a choice of a small bottle of orange juice or a bickie ("cookie", for the American readers).
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This is objectively not true [cafonline.org].
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Blood donors in Australia get $0.
In America, we often get free t-shirts. I am a member of the "10 Gallon Club", with 80 donations*, and I have about a dozen Red Cross t-shirts. We also get coupons for a pint of free ice cream, "a pint for a pint".
* I have "baby blood", that is type O and free of cytomegalovirus antibodies, and can be used with newborns, so they always schedule me to donate again as soon as I am eligible.
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In Oz, it's a bottle of water or juice, and a packet of crisps. That's mainly to make you wait around to see if you get a vaso-vagal reaction. That's a rapid drop of blood pressure leading to fainting. I saw it happen once during a donation. The donor was quickly laid out flat in the reclining chair, and the nurse in charge was on the phone, looking very concerned.
I once had a delayed reaction to a donation, albeit a few hours later. It wasn't a big deal, just light-headed for 20 minutes. When I phoned in t
Re: It was a good run (Score:2)
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One of those 2.4 million may have been you.
Re: It was a good run (Score:1)
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We should use CRISPR to splice his gene for the anit-body into another donor.
"We"? Who is part of that "we" with you?
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There are 160 other donors in Australia alone. He was just the first.
He also didn't retire, he was retired as they were worried about his health (he'd continued to donate after the legal cut off age)
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I believe they LET / ASKED him to keep donating after the usual Age cut off date because they needed his blood and he was a very good producer of what they needed. But he finally reached the age where even the blood bank said "yeah nah Maaaaaaate! thanks! been wonderful, but we really don't want to kill you so this is your last"
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I've seen this report on some other websites and the comments can be difficult to swallow.
Some people actually believe he should continue to donate - that the benefit outweighs the risk.
He's had one lung since 14, and his donations have positively affected MILLIONS of lives, yet some people opine that he should continue.
I don't think those people have any idea how long even minor puncture wounds can take to heal, and how degraded your immune system is, by that age. You're at greater risk of infection, even
Good on you mate (Score:1)
That is some legacy.
Re:Democrats in the US... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, Democrats have a well-known negative stance about Rh-positive babies. Including A+, B+, AB+, and of course O+(?)
Oooh-kay. For those of you not familiar with basic newborn hematology, if a mom has Rh-negative blood (relatively rare compared at 15% to Rh-positive blood) and the baby has Rh-positive blood, and during pregnancy the mom's blood gets exposed to babies (can happen in car accidents and other placental problems resulting in fetal-maternal hemorrhage - the fetus's blood ends up in mom's circulation) the mom will start to make antibodies against the babies Rh antigens (more specifically, Rh-D antigens - there's more than one - Rhesus is a whole group; the D antigen is the troublesome one). This is one of the reasons couples contemplating marriage used to get blood tests in the United States, before the introduction of the medicine folks like James Harrison [wikipedia.org] made possible.
In the United States, anti-D is typically referred to by its brand name, RhoGAM. It has antibodies to Rh-D - just a small amount, though. You inject this into a mom, her immune system detects them, and then if it sees actual anti-D from the fetus her immune system doesn't freak out and attack the fetal blood cells. Now and then we run into patients who do not like vaccines, which RhoGAM more or less is. The first baby is fine. The second baby to be exposed will often die (NSFW: pictures [google.com]). In babies who don't die from hemolytic disease of the newborn (where their blood cells are destroyed, by maternal antibodies, among other problems) they can suffer brain damage. Treatment involves exchange transfusion and, in less severe cases, phototherapy, where we shine 460 nm light on them for a few days—hopefully not knocking too many DNA off the strand in the process.
Alternatively, you can take your chances with red raspberry and nettle tea, according to this person [thehealthy...nomist.com] who claims to uphold evidence-based wellness, though she doesn't actually cite any evidence.
RhoGAM is made from pooled human plasma, like the gentleman cited in the article. He just happened to have a substantial amount of the antibodies, likely the result of blood transfusion exposure.
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claims to uphold evidence-based wellness, though she doesn't actually cite any evidence.
Evidence is for suckers that believe the system's here to help them. I know I'm right, why? Because I say so. If I was wrong I wouldn't be saying this.
Don't believe those smarty-pants "scientists" with all of their "evidence" and "trials" -- they just want to experiment on you and get you to buy their product to help fund the system. So order from me now -- only $19.99 with free shipping!
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Yes, apparently he had transfusion/s during surgery at 14, where a lung was removed.
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Hardly. Maybe reduced the risk for those babies, but most of them would've survived.
Indeed. 2.4M is about 10% of the population of Australia. Rh disease is only a concern in about 2% of births, and even with no treatment, most of them would have survived.
Re: 2.4 million? (Score:1)
I, for one, would rather not survive brain damage.
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over 60 years.
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has donated blood nearly every week for 60 years
Surely that would skew the stats? If he's donated nearly every week since the late 50's, that duration would well account for 10% of the population, even accommodating for a significant migrant intake over that time.
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If he's donated nearly every week since the late 50's, that duration would well account for 10% of the population
You misunderstand. I am not disputing that 10% of the population received the antibody as a precaution, based on their parent's blood types. That may be true. But few of those babies would have actually got the disease, and far fewer of them would have DIED. So it is silly to say that he "saved the lives" of 2.4 million people, as the headline says.
The number of lives saved is likely "only" a few thousand.
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Re:Gonna sound bad but.. (Score:5, Informative)
You don't have the slightest idea what you are talking about.
Children of Rhesus negative mothers and Rhesus positive fathers will be Rhesus positive and at risk of their mother developing antibodies to their blood (as as second child after the mother has been sensitised by the first child, or as the result of the mother being exposed to the child's blood). High risk of still birth or major problems for the child.
If this is prevented, they aren't affected. They go on to be Rhesus positive. Like the majority of the population. In as much as Rhesus negative is as low as 10% in some populations, by increasing the number of surviving Rhesus positive children you are _reducing_ the risk in the general population over time.
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Children of Rhesus negative mothers and Rhesus positive fathers will be Rhesus positive and at risk of their mother developing antibodies to their blood (as as second child after the mother has been sensitised by the first child, or as the result of the mother being exposed to the child's blood). High risk of still birth or major problems for the child.
The gene for Rh- is recessive. Citation [arizona.edu]. I ended up having to explain this to my Mom--whose genotype here I actually do know, without any need to test it, because I know hers and my maternal grandfather's blood types.
Before Anti-D injections were available, it was generally fatal and the only way a later child would survive is if the father's genotype was Rh+/Rh-. This was the case with my maternal grandfather; his Rh type was known at birth..and I know the genotypes for all of his siblings. (If you're w
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I stand corrected. Thank you
Nearly every week? (Score:4, Informative)
I think not.
TFA says he donated a bit over 1100 times over 60 years.
For the calendar-challenged among us, there are 3128 weeks in 60 years. And 1100 is NOT almost 3128....
Note that this should not be read to denigrate the phenomenal amount of blood this guy donated over the years. Just the idiots who put "nearly every week" into TFA....
Re:Nearly every week? (Score:5, Informative)
Blood donations are limited to once every 12 weeks in Australia. The American Red Cross limits blood donations to every 8 weeks. Plasma (and platelet) donations to every 7 days, up to 24 times a year (once every 2.2 weeks).
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Quite so. That's right in line with him donating pretty much every chance he had to do so. Wonderful example for all of us, frankly.
And if TFA had said that, my post wouldn't have used words like "idiots" to describe the people who wrote TFA....
Re:Nearly every week? (Score:5, Insightful)
Speaking as a father whose daughter survived because of this injection (not his exactly - we're on the other side of the world), but who cares really) I'd just like to publicly thank this man for his time and humanity. It's easy to poke fun at the statistics and such, but let's all take a moment to acknowledge that this gentleman took time out of his life EVERY WEEK FOR 60 YEARS to give something precious that improved lives for millions of people.
Imagine you and your wife (or vice versa) are in your first trimester and she starts bleeding a bit. You rush to ER and they do blood work, and you realize to your horror that your blood is killing your child. And then the doctors say to your wife "sign here, we've made a vaccine that we're going to give you that should stop it". I literally sobbed.
My daughter is playing on her computer behind me as I type this and can't see the tears in my eyes.
Give the man a medal.
Min
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Nearly the same situation here. The only reason I'm the father of 3 boys instead of only my oldest is because of some person like this willingly donating their time and biology to help people like us. Thank you to those people AND for the intelligent biologists, scientists, and doctors who figured all this stuff out to begin with. I'm very thankful for the day and age we live in, and I know my wife and sons are too.
I fully support your idea to give this man a metal, maybe name a hospital after him too.
Si
Thanks mate! (Score:1)
My wife required several Anti-D injections throughout her pregnancy, so thanks mate!
The Man With The Golden Arm - 1955 (Score:2)
Starring Frank Sinatra & Kim Novak
A strung-out junkie deals with a demoralizing drug addiction while his crippled wife and card sharks pull him down.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0... [imdb.com]
You have it wrong. (Score:3)
Survival of the fittest can also mean being able to develop a brain, a culture, a society and sciences where things like genetic differences have no larger impact.
Just wait for when we as a species are able to cheat natural death. If all goes well, that point in time isn't to far off.
Until that happens, think of this as australians society - which happens to have functional healthcare - winning out to the US which doesn't have this.
Darwin at work indeed.
You're welcome.
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People like to cite survival of the fittest until they're not the fittest . Then it's all "oh, but wait, my case is special!".
Why does Aussie law stop HIM at 81? (Score:2)
This is not just any other blood donor. This law makes no sense if he is saving lives and wants to give. The decision makers need to explain how they plan to justify this to the parents of the dead or brain damaged children.
I'm sure there are countries that would provide free room and board at a 5 star hotel just to get his blood.
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I mean, who the fuck thought that was a good idea in a relatively young immigrant nation?
Me. I'd vote for that law in the UK too, even if it would mean at least one of my favourite politicians losing their seat.
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Seriously? There has to be a line drawn somewhere. What's *your* opinion on when it should stop?
He's already saved more lives than you ever could. There *are* other people with his blood type, you know.
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What a wonderful man. (Score:2)
Well deserved retirement. (Score:1)
He had to retire, he was feeling a little drained.