7 ms·
James Harrison, whose blood donations saved >2M babies, has died
- hn_user82179 2y agoReading the title, I assumed James' donation was a one-time thing and scientists had sequenced something in his blood which was later used for the babies he'd saved, but no, he gave blood almost 1200 times in his life. Absolutely incredible. He was 81 the last time he donated blood. >According to Lifeblood, 17% of Australian women who become pregnant end up needing anti-D injections — and most of the country's supply comes from a pool of less than 200 regular plasma donors. This was the most shocking part of this article though. I've never heard of "anti-D" but it sounds incredibly needed and that's a very small supply.
- quesera 2y agoImagine saving 2000 lives by sitting down for 30 minutes with a coffee and biscuit. What they don't say is whether these 200 donors constitute more or less than 100% of the clinical need for anti-D plasma. If my contributions were that valuable, I'd wonder if it made sense to keep me on life support just to extract my blood every two weeks. But alas, blood donors in Australia must be 81 years or younger, so I guess the question is academic in this case.
- belval 2y ago> If my contributions were that valuable, I'd wonder if it made sense to keep me on life support just to extract my blood every two weeks. It's a really interesting somewhat thought provoking idea. To some extent these people are valuable enough that turning them into blood factories after cerebral death is the more moral option?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- RandomDistort 2y agoBy the sounds of it, if there was a painless way of doing it, he would probably be fine with this. If he consented when he was alive, I don't see how it could be moral to ignore his wishes and let more people die as a result. I guess laws will get in the way of this kind of thing though.
- MrLeap 2y agoI mulled over this for a while, thought deeply about it from a lot of angles. I think the only useful heuristic for thorny issues like this is to do our best to balance compassion for self and others, and encourage others to do the same. I can see it from a "yes" perspective and from a "no" perspective, and I can find reasons to regret saying either. Agency, autonomy and compassion are critical features of the scenarios that have the least regrets. At the bottom of that article it indicated they've successfully recreated the antibody in a lab, I hope that saves a lot of families from suffering.
- quesera 2y agoI'd sign up for it. On the list of "best options" for my vegetative body, this would rate fairly highly. But yeah, like assisted suicide, there are people with non-aligned motives who could be incentivized to coerce a decision from weak/befuddled/old patients. There are many decisions I'd like to make now, while of sound mind and body, that I would like to be respected when I am no longer able to make decisions for myself. The state allows some of them, but not all.
- trhway 2y ago>turning them into blood factories after cerebral death we already turn people into transplant organs source, so i don't see much difference between harvesting a kidney, heart or blood
- belval 2y agoI think the duration makes it different, the ECMO (blood + oxygen being pumped out of the body) record according to Google is something like 554 days. That's much much longer than the typical transplant.
- Boogie_Man 2y ago"no"
- chneu 2y agoRadiolab recently re-released an episode that kinda sorta deals with this. https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-...
- dekhn 2y agoMy dad has been donating regular blood and then plasma for decades. I used to do it frequently- apparently, I'm "CMV negative", which is good for babies.
- Scoundreller 2y ago> But alas, blood donors in Australia must be 81 years or younger, so I guess the question is academic in this case. > Once you’re 81 you must have donated in Australia in the last 5 years to remain eligible. https://www.lifeblood.com.au/faq/eligibility/other/age?_gl=1*n1657z*_gcl_au*MTg4NTg3NzQxNy4xNzQxMDM2NzY1*_ga*MTMzNDgzMDg5OS4xNzQxMDM2NzY1*_ga_YKWGBSJP2H*MTc0MTAzNjc2NC4xLjEuMTc0MTAzNjc3Ny40Ny4wLjA.*_ga_S6DC1VY4ED*MTc0MTAzNjc2NS4xLjEuMTc0MTAzNjc3MC4wLjAuMA..*_ga_VYV3F6SLKF*MTc0MTAzNjc3Mi4xLjAuMTc0MTAzNjc3Mi42MC4wLjA https://www.lifeblood.com.au/faq/eligibility/other/age?_gl=1.... (That’s the nastiest long URL I’ve ever seen. All I did was click the “find out more” link here: https://www.lifeblood.com.au/blood/eligibility/quiz https://www.lifeblood.com.au/blood/eligibility/quiz )
- OJFord 2y agoAs is often the case, you can strip the query string ('?' and everything following it): https://www.lifeblood.com.au/faq/eligibility/other/age https://www.lifeblood.com.au/faq/eligibility/other/age (It's probably just a load of analytics & tracking gumpf, maybe 'ga' = Google Analytics, I don't know.)
- bot347851834 2y agoI'm from mobile so I can't see much more but I can spot that the url contains the _gl parameter. That's the parameter (and cookie) used by Google Analytics to perform cross-domain tracking so I believe your assumption that GA is active is correct. More info here if you want: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10071811 https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10071811
- gus_massa 2y agoIs it possible to keep only a,bone that has bone marrow that produces white cells that produce the antibody? It would be less creepy, but white cell maturation is not easy, so I guess there are many problems I don't imagine. But there is also monoclonal antibodies for cancer, and this antibody production looks somewhat similar.
- yencabulator 2y agoThis made me think of the eternal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- wkat4242 2y ago> Imagine saving 2000 lives by sitting down for 30 minutes with a coffee and biscuit. I tried doing it too but it's a lot more involved. I don't have this anti-D thing though. Just normal blood. You need to go through an interview, a medical check and various forms. Once I went through all that they told me I can't give any :(. Multiple sex partners, regular tattoos etc. I did want to and was prepared to do it regularly. I can see how they are having difficulty getting enough. But anyway I tried. I wish they were better at screening blood so I could help.
- devilbunny 2y agoD is another name, as the article explains, for Rh (Rhesus) factor. Since some fetal blood ends up in the maternal circulation during birth, an Rh-positive baby with an Rh-negative mother will trigger mom’s immune system to make anti-Rh antibodies, which causes problems for any future Rh-positive babies. Giving mom anti-Rh antibodies immediately after delivery scavenges all those Rh antigens from mom’s blood before her immune system can react. She has to repeat this for every Rh-positive birth.
- andrewla 2y agoThere's more information in one of the linked articles [1]. Apparently some very small percentage of Rh-negative people have an enzyme which allows them to accept Rh-positive blood; that's the "anti-D" factor which saves these lives. [1] https://www.lifeblood.com.au/blood/learn-about-blood/plasma/anti-D https://www.lifeblood.com.au/blood/learn-about-blood/plasma/...
- blindriver 2y agoHow many millions of babies have died because of this? Humans truly are incredible that we were able to figure this out, and this guy is a hero for donating blood as often as he did. He needs to be memorialized.
- throwup238 2y agoIt's hard to say because it depends on population genetics and demographic patterns which vary widely over time period and culture, but it's probably in the ballpark of a hundred million or more in the totality of human existence. I'm on my phone and can't access my notes so I'm going from memory but if we are to take the hemolytic fatality rate in Sub-Saharan Africa as the upper limit, it's on the order of 0.1% of all births. Given the general estimate of 100-120 billion humans who have ever lived, the numbers are staggering.
- blindriver 2y agoThank you, that is an incredible number of deaths and the fact that someone was able to study this and figure out a solution is just mind boggling.
- malkia 2y agoReal Hero! RIP Legend!
- toomuchtodo 2y agoRelated: James Harrison, blood donor whose rare plasma saved babies, dies - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43242328 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43242328
- jujube3 2y agoRest in peace
- j_timberlake 2y agoShould they have paid him wages for all his time and effort? On the one hand, people should get compensation for their labor, especially since he's probably saving the healthcare system from having to do more-expensive/less-effective interventions. On the other hand, being treated like an employee sucks, so maybe it's for the best. Where I live, blood centers take the middle road by giving us rewards-points we can exchange for gift cards, but that adds the complication of having to manage gift cards.
- bangaladore 2y ago> Blood donors are not compensated financially under Australian law. This is something I find hard to agree with. I understand banning say selling of body parts (even your own). But blood / plasma?
- chneu 2y agoAs a lifelong donor, 10+ gallons, I don't think we should be paid for blood. It takes just a lil bit of time. Banning payment avoids a ton of issues and overhead. Downside is less people donate, but I don't think $10 would change that much.
- tiluha 2y agoIn Germany you get to eat from a tasty assortment of food after donating. When going with friends it makes for a nice little event. Fair deal
- chneu 2y agoI tend to donate at churches and community centers because the food is more often homemade. Chatting with them old ladies is great. The red cross also has their "rewards" program but it's nonsense stuff like water bottles. I think you can exchange points for Amazon gift cards. Like $15/year.
- Lev1a 2y agoWhen I previously donated blood at the DRK, not only did I always get a Bockwurst&Brötchen along with a selection of beverages (water, cola, coffee, tea, etc.) but also a little gift bag containing a variety of little food and drink items, like a banana, an apple, little bottles/packets of fruit juice, (fruit/chocolate/etc.) joghurt cups, all in all maybe ~5-7€ worth.
- zingababba 2y agoI wonder if he was constantly taking iron. I went through a streak of donation and started feeling terrible. I got a complete iron panel done (amongst other stuff) and my ferritin was something like 20.
- neaden 2y agoHe was donating plasma so I don't think it should have effected his iron much compared to whole blood donation.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- yellers 2y agoThey check blood iron levels before each donation in Australia. They send you away if you’re too low.
- ksenzee 2y agoThey check hemoglobin levels before donation in the US, but they don’t check ferritin (it’s a less commonly run test in general). You can have symptoms from iron deficiency before your deficiency is reflected in your hemoglobin level, and a ferritin test will pick that up, but a quick hemoglobin screen won’t.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- zingababba 2y agoYes, this is exactly what happened to me. My hemoglobin was always in range (albeit lower, but the screeners had no problems passing me along) however my ferritin was crashed.
- moduspol 2y agoI was hoping the article would clarify how it was determined that he had this specific abnormality. I've given blood before. Is this the kind of thing they check for and would have informed me if I had? Or do doctors have to go out of their way to check for it?
- neaden 2y agoFrom the link in the article: https://www.lifeblood.com.au/blood/learn-about-blood/plasma/anti-D https://www.lifeblood.com.au/blood/learn-about-blood/plasma/... it sounds like they test people who are RH negative who give plasma. So if you know you are a RH negative man or woman past childbearing years you can donate plasma and ask. I've given plasma before and it wasn't mentioned but I'm RH+.
- quesera 2y agoIn my experience, yes. If you give blood, they will test it in all sorts of ways, and if you are identified as having an unusual helpful factor, they will reach out and encourage you to continue donating.
- classichasclass 2y agoIt's not at all clear why he produced such high quality antibodies, but one theory was the sheer quantity of transfusions he had to receive after a lung operation (something on the order of 7.4L of blood). They have no idea why he continued to produce them after, however.
- chneu 2y agoOne of the benefits of blood donation is your blood is screened for a bunch of stuff. I do wish they'd expand the testing a bit. I think a lot of people would donate if it came with a metabolic panel, for example.
- toast0 2y agoThere are ethical concerns if a donation is not of free will and with no expectation of benefits. If you get blood panel results with a "donation", it's an exchange of value, not a donation.
- tombert 2y agoSounds like a genuinely decent dude. I really should give blood; I've resisted it all my life because my blood type isn't rare (A+), and I have an extremely strong phobia of needles, where if I see one pricking me I risk vomiting. I can suck it up enough to get a vaccine, and I do get my flu shots and boosters every year, but it has made the prospect of donating blood considerably less enticing. That's pretty selfish though, I should just suck it up and donate it...though I'm definitely not going to do it every two weeks like this guy.
- sebmellen 2y agoIt might act as a kind of exposure therapy if you do it regularly!
- arp242 2y agoI donated just a few times, and to be honest I really hated it. I figure that I donated about as much as I'm ever likely to receive, and that's "good enough" for this particular contribution. I seeded to a ratio of 1. Also, as AB+ it's the least useful blood type for donations (can only donate to AB+, about 2% of the population – on the plus side, can receive donations from any type).
- Loughla 2y agoAB+ should be donating platelets or plasma. You're a universal donor for that. And if you're a man, you especially should be donating to save Mom's and babies. Source: the red cross hounds me for platelets and plasma.
- arp242 2y agoYeah dunno, they never asked/offered it as an option.
- saalweachter 2y agoHonestly, if you want to give it another try, beyond donating plasma, I recommend feeling smug about it. No, really; it's not like a lot of work to donate blood, if there's a blood drive at your workplace or somewhere else convenient, it's just a little uncomfortable and maybe you take it easy for a couple of days after. So just reveling in the vainglorious satisfaction of feeling better than all those other selfish people who didn't SAVE ANY LIVES that day can be enough to outweigh the mild discomfort and bit of time you spent on the process, so the next time you see the blood drive you can look forward to the impending smugness rather than dreading the inconvenient obligation.
- amelius 2y agoIt's a smart thing to do, because donating blood has health benefits.
- rsanek 2y agoReally? I have heard of alot of FUD around plassing in particular, see e.g. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/blood-money-the-twisted-business-of-donating-plasma/362012/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/blood-mon... / https://archive.is/kXRef https://archive.is/kXRef
- enimodas 2y agoLowers heavy metals or something
- amelius 2y agoI'm not an expert but it seems it also lowers PFAs. > In this randomized clinical trial of 285 firefighters, both blood and plasma donations resulted in significantly lower PFAS levels than observation alone. Plasma donation was the most effective intervention, reducing mean serum perfluorooctane sulfonate levels by 2.9 ng/mL compared with a 1.1-ng/mL reduction with blood donation, a significant difference; similar changes were seen with other PFASs. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8994130/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8994130/
- deadbabe 2y agoSo many were saved, surely someone here must have been saved by him, or has a child who was saved?
- lenerdenator 2y agoThere needs to be a statue of that man in an important place in Australia. Maybe even some money with his face on it.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoThat's an awesome story. Thanks for sharing it. TIL, there's something called "anti-D" plasma.
- HenryBemis 2y agoI read it too earlier on BBC, I am happy that people like that 1) exist and 2) keep giving their literal blood (although we don't know if he was donating a shot or 4 pints). I sometimes think that "yes we are all equal" but in a (animal farm positive spin) some people are "simply better than me" and in those people I include Jane Goodall, and a few others. Well that list just got one more member. If you save a life you get a big point in my list. If you have been saving lives for 60 years, you get all the points. On top of that, (again I didn't expand on the reading for the topic) I didn't get a sense that the guy was asking (and getting) millions for his donations, for which I would give him even more points!!!
- lofaszvanitt 2y agoSome device that could take your blood in a closed system at home would be also ok. You put it on after waking up, it draws the blood, the blood container seals itself. It has your identifier of some sorts. So you just drop it off at a blood drop off point and go where ever you want.
- OkayPhysicist 2y agoIVs are, while not the most complicated skill a medical practitioner needs to learn, a tricky thing to get right. Too deep and you risk causing real damage, too shallow and you're not hitting the vein, wrong spot and you miss the vein, etc, etc. And most people wouldn't be happy with a needle permanently tapped into their vein, so not really viable.
- mmooss 2y agoIt's not the most important aspect of the story, but I wonder how they prevented infection or other harm from all those blood draws. Eventually, it seems the odds would catch up to him.
- jebarker 2y agoI'm AB+ and try to donate plasma regularly. But in the city where I live there is a single place to donate and, frankly, the experience is not very pleasant. The center itself feels more like an abandoned warehouse than a medical facility and there is often some kind of tension in the air among the employees. There needs to be more convenient donation options.
- trashface 2y agoIn the US when I lived on the west coast there were dedicated blood centers where you could donate. I have O neg blood which I think gets given to infants, so they would often call me up and get me scheduled as soon as I was eligible after the waiting period between donations. I was sometimes sluggish about scheduling a donation, but still managed to go over 20 times in the few years I lived out there. Then I moved to east coast, and there is basically none of that infrastructure, you have to find a mobile blood bank or be aware of some event or community site that sometimes hosts them. I'm bad at that kind of community awareness, so the upshot is I haven't donated once in the 15 years I've lived here. Always surprised by that since there are so many more people on the east coast, I'm not sure where all the blood is coming from since they are so bad about getting people to do regular donations.
- quantumfissure 2y agoWhere at? Where I live in Pennsylvania, and not the most populated of areas, there are at least 3 groups open all the time for donations (two local Hospital systems and the regional Blood Bank). Plus, there are no less then three mobile blood drives at fire halls; schools; churches; civic centers (i.e. VFW; Lions; Elks, etc...); libraries; etc... seemingly every week. If you don't see signs, you often see it posted in grocery stores, libraries, anywhere a community billboard might be.
- trashface 2y agoValley forge area, but also up and down montgomery county, I've never seen a dedicated blood bank. If the hospitals are taking blood they aren't advertising that. The local Y has a mobile blood bank occasionally, but I've missed it every time. I never see blood donation ads anywhere except the Y (I would miss ones in churches and most community centers though).
- quantumfissure 2y agoNot to be snarky, but I grew up in ChesCo, and could've sworn there were donation centers way back even in the 90's, near KoP and West Chester. https://www.giveapint.org/ https://www.giveapint.org/ Locations in Pottstown/Exton, plus St Luke's Hospital Red Cross, lots coming up: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?dt=WB:DR&ed=03%2F17%2F2025&order=DATE&range=10&sd=03%2F04%2F2025&zipSponsor=19405 https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?dt=WB:... Supposedly CHOP has locations too. They do wonderful work.
- iJohnDoe 2y agoBeautiful story. I also learned something new today. Major kudos to James Harrison. > He made his last donation in May 2018, surrounded by half a dozen grateful mothers holding babies who benefited from the anti-D program.
- protocolture 2y agoHe should have been paid, and he shouldnt have been forced to stop donating.
- ViktorRay 2y agoWow I have never heard of this man before. Inspirational figure. Thanks for posting this! I’m going to try to donate blood more often! It’s a good way to help others.