Have you ever donated blood before? You might get a little scared but donating blood will surely be helpful to a lot of people.
One particular person had been donating blood for 60 years, and apparently, he had already saved millions of lives.
James Harrison was hailed as "the man with the golden arm". It appears that Harrison was a person who received a blood donation years ago. According to him, he was only 14 years old when the doctors removed one of his lungs.
Such surgery requires a lot of blood and because of this, Harrison survived the surgery with the help of blood transfusions. Since then, he promised he would donate blood every year and up to now he has not stopped giving blood.
True enough, for 60 years he donated blood with a record of 1,173 plasma donations -1,163 from his right arm and 10 from his left. According to Australian Red Cross blood service, Harrison had saved 2.4 Million lives!
His blood contains rare antibodies that are needed by pregnant women. It is called Anti-D which was being developed in the 1960's using Harrison's blood.
This Anti-D is the cure for Rhesus Disease which occurs on pregnant women when the mother contains rhesus-negative blood (RhD negative) while the baby in her womb has rhesus-positive blood (RhD positive) which was inherited from the father.
Positive and negative clash, therefore it may result for the mother's negative rhesus blood to destroy the baby's foreign blood cell that may end up with the baby's brain to be damaged.
Unfortunately, Harrison had already surpassed the donor age limit which prevents him from donating blood again.
But according to him, "I'd keep on going if they'd let me."
This is also to ensure Harrison's health since he is already at the ripe age of 78.
The photo below is of Mr. Harrison surrounded by mothers and Anti-D babies he saved during his final donation.
The man with the golden arm truly led a purposeful life saving those babies. There is nothing more satisfying knowing you saved a lot of lives using your blood. He is a true inspiration and hero.
Source:.boredpanda
