James Harrison was 14 when doctors operated on his chest in Australia. Without blood transfusions from strangers, he would not have survived.
That day, he made himself a promise: when he came of age, he would donate too. He kept it at 18, in 1954, and returned to sit in the chair every two weeks for decades. He was afraid of needles. Even so, he made 1.173 donations, the last in 2018, when he turned 81, the age limit in Australia.
Doctors then discovered that his plasma contained a rare antibody, Anti-D, which is the basis of the treatment that protects babies from hemolytic disease of the newborn, in which the mother’s body attacks her child’s blood. Before this treatment, one in every two diagnosed babies died. Lifeblood, Australia’s blood service, estimates that his plasma helped save around 2,4 million lives. Among the women who needed it was his own daughter.
James died in his sleep on February 17, 2025, at the age of 88. Today, scientists are trying to recreate his antibody in the lab so that the gift of a man who hated needles can continue saving babies.
