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Medicine

Man With the "Golden Arm" Has Saved Lives of 2 Million Babies 97

Posted by samzenpus from the save-every-drop dept.
schwit1 writes: James Harrison, known as "The Man with the Golden Arm," has donated blood plasma from his right arm nearly every week for the past 60 years. Soon after Harrison became a donor, doctors called him in. His blood, they said, could be the answer to a deadly problem. Harrison was discovered to have an unusual antibody in his blood and in the 1960s he worked with doctors to use the antibodies to develop an injection called Anti-D. It prevents women with rhesus-negative blood from developing RhD antibodies during pregnancy. "In Australia, up until about 1967, there were literally thousands of babies dying each year, doctors didn't know why, and it was awful," explains Jemma Falkenmire, of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. "Women were having numerous miscarriages and babies were being born with brain damage." It was the result of rhesus disease — 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. Australia was one of the first countries to discover a blood donor with this antibody, so it was quite revolutionary at the time. Last year we ran a story about another person with "golden blood" named Thomas.
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Man With the "Golden Arm" Has Saved Lives of 2 Million Babies More

Man With the "Golden Arm" Has Saved Lives of 2 Million Babies

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  • Guest House (Score:5, Funny)

    by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @02:13PM (#49884933) Journal
    Do they label the containers of his donated blood 'GH 325'?

    • How can one do apheresis donation for 60 years?? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Taco Cowboy ( 5327 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @10:39PM (#49888375) Journal

      As a platelet donator myself I have nothing but respect for Mr. James Harrison

      Unlike Mr. James Harrison I simply can't foresee I can do 600 bouts of aphresis donation

      During the 'peak years' I donated almost once every 2 weeks, as I was always 'on call' by the blood bank as my platelet count is high (more than 350, sometimes approaching 400)

      Many blood banks prefer to give the patients, - especially those severely weakened patients who had gone through regiments of chemotherapy to fight their blood/bone marrow cancers, - platelets from single donor rather than platelets collected from multiple donors

      Thus far I have done platelet donation for more than 200 times, but due to the accumulation of scar tissues many of the blood veins in both of my arms have either collapsed, or shrunk

      I still give blood, but whole blood, as my veins can no longer take the punishment from the aphresis process

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by RyoShin ( 610051 )

        This might be a stupid question, but is the scar tissue the result of so many donations, or injuries unrelated to the donations?

        • When I was in hospital they put a tube in my arm with a plug in it. This way I could be hooked up for numerous IV/injection in the same hole. I would imagine this guy might have something similar.
      • I am a longtime regular (biweekly) platelet donor as well-- over 32 gallons of platelets to Children's Hospital Los Angeles, dozens of gallons before that to Red Cross-- but unlike you, my platelet count has never been over about 230, and more typically about 180 or so. I'm 67 now... have been using the same needle site for many years... I hope I never have the problem you have had, since I take great satisfaction in my donations, and would be quite happy to continue for another few hundred years. In ac

        • I see others on Slashdot can create paragraphs, but when I write anything with paragraphs it appears as a single block of text-- WHY???

          Because Slashdot is fucked. You need to markup your text with html tags such as this [w3schools.com]

  • Hmmm ... (Score:3)

    by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @02:14PM (#49884947) Homepage

    Can they not cultivate these antibodies?

    Because, you know, relying entirely on this one guy seems like bad idea.

    • Re: Hmmm ... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @02:21PM (#49885027)

      A). Not entirely, no. They can isolate and concentrate it, maybe stimulate production, but full synthesis? I don't see that happening yet.

      B). There are other people with a similar mutation, so he isn't the only possible source. He is just an example of a very reliable one. If it were necessary, they could screen all of Australia and possibly find several, even among his relatives.

      • SURE they can. (Score:5, Informative)

        by Ungrounded Lightning ( 62228 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @05:17PM (#49886477) Journal

        They can isolate and concentrate it, maybe stimulate production, but full synthesis? I don't see that happening yet.

        Huh?

        Human monoclonal antibodies have been grown by culturing gene-engineered mouse cells since at least 1988. They're already in use treating a number of diseases and more are in the approval pipeline.

        From Wikipedia: [wikipedia.org]

        Building on the work of many others, in 1975, Georges KÃhler and César Milstein succeeded in making fusions of myeloma cell lines with B cells to produce hybridomas that made antibodies to known antigens and that were immortalized.[2] They shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 for the discovery.[2]

        In 1988, Greg Winter and his team pioneered the techniques to humanize monoclonal antibodies,[3] removing the reactions that many monoclonal antibodies caused in some patients.

        Monoclonal antibodies have been generated and approved to treat cancer, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory diseases, macular degeneration, transplant rejection, multiple sclerosis, and viral infection (see monoclonal antibody therapy).

        In August 2006 the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America reported that U.S. companies had 160 different monoclonal antibodies in clinical trials or awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

        This disease process looks like suitable candidate for this approach, as well.

        A few antibody PRODUCING cells, harvested from the same donor(s) as the antibodies, would be an ideal starting point: The antibodies have already been proven to cure the disease, so only a production mechanism is needed. Once a suitable cell line has been constructed, tested, and its product approved, the donor can retire, secure in the knowledge that his genetic material will continue to save mothers' and babies' lives, even long after his death.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        B). There are other people with a similar mutation, so he isn't the only possible source. He is just an example of a very reliable one. If it were necessary, they could screen all of Australia and possibly find several, even among his relatives.

        What makes you think he has a mutation? FTFA: "Doctors still aren’t exactly sure why Harrison has this rare blood type but they think it might be from the transfusions he received when he was 14, after his lung surgery. He’s one of no more than 50 people in Australia known to have the antibodies, according the Australian Red Cross blood service."

        The use of the phrase "blood type" in this instance is wrong, he has developed an antibody probably due to being transfused with Rh(0) D+ blood.

    • Re:Hmmm ... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Sqweegee ( 968985 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @02:41PM (#49885185)

      They don't have to at all.

      I worked for one of the company that produced WinRho SDF and we collected donations locally and a location in the US. There's probably a few hundred potential donors in the average sized city. There's a half dozen different name brands for the stuff.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R... [wikipedia.org]

      • Hmmm ... so does Australia have a different amount of people with this?

        Because this makes it sound like he's literally the sole source:

        Every batch of Anti-D that has ever been made in Australia has come from Jamesâ(TM) blood.

        I'm not sure if that means "if we didn't find it in him we'd not even have it", or if literally every batch of this is physically derived from him.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by cdrudge ( 68377 )

          A little bit later in the article it states "Heâ(TM)s one of no more than 50 people in Australia known to have the antibodies, according the Australian Red Cross blood service."

          My guess is that he's not the only one that could be used, but only one person donating is needed to meet supply demands.

      • Re:Hmmm ... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by GreyWanderingRogue ( 598058 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @03:49PM (#49885737)
        From the article, it sounds like he developed the anitgen from having received more than 3 liters of blood during surgery as a youth. If I'm understanding correctly, his body was given blood incompatible with his own and so it created the antigen to deal with it. Does that mean that the hundred people in a typical city acquired it the same way, and that the number of people developing it will decrease as fewer people are given incompatible blood and those who have in the past die off?

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I'm one of those. Most anybody with Rh negative blood type could be one.

        The process is a bit squicky, at least in theory. I get matched up with an Rh + donor with roughly the same antigen profile as mine, I get injected with that donor's blood (it's quarantined for some period of time after donation, to make sure that the donor doesn't show signs of latent diseases like HIV), and my body starts making antibodies to the Rh factor in the donor blood. I donate plasma a couple times a week, the lab siphons o

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward
          I have someone like you to thank for the life of 2 of my 3 children. My wife is Rh- (she is actually O-,unversal donor) and I am Rh+, so probably 2 of my three children either would not be alive or would be seriously disabled.
      • The question is, how many people donate blood at all? And would be willing to donate regularly? And *can*? I used to donate 3 to 5 times a year, and haven't for a few years because of medical deferral. If the full donor pool donated even once per year, we wouldn't have any shortages.
    • No, antibodies are usually harvested from people, mice, or goats. The trick is to be able to present an antigen that makes them make anitbodies you want, and then isolate and purify those antibodies.

  • So this is the dude behind Rhogam? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sconeu ( 64226 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @02:15PM (#49884951) Homepage Journal

    I owe him for the lives of both my daughters. I'm O+, my late wife was O-, and both girls were O+. My wife got Rhogam and both girls were healthy.

    Mr. Harrison, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

    • I would have had a younger sister if it wasn't for this. I was the first RH mismatch in my family...

      Sadly, it looks like the treatment didn't reach the USA until at least a decade later.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        In 1969 when I was 7, my mother and baby sister both almost died, and as I recall my baby sister needed 6 complete blood transfusions. In my memory, it's like a Mad Men episode. My dad smoked in the car, drove to the hospital (in Indiana), then told me to wait in the car with my 3 year old brother so he could go in and find out if my mother and sister were dead or not. I've always wondered why this problem "went away"

      • Re: So this is the dude behind Rhogam? (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        It was first approved in the US in 1968, though prior to that tests were being done, as were alternative methods that had some efficacy.

        Don't know what happened in your family's situation, but perhaps something could have been done. Certainly you wouldn't have had to wait till the late seventies. Well, your parents.

        • Don't know what happened in your family's situation, but perhaps something could have been done. Certainly you wouldn't have had to wait till the late seventies. Well, your parents.

          I was born in '76. Mom didn't get the shot when I was born*, my brother matched, then mom spontaneously aborted her third pregnancy due to mismatch. Maybe it was because we were poor and in the midwest, maybe they didn't test, I don't know.

          *The first RH mismatch normally makes it.

    • Sir, this was a message from God* for humanity: a human publicly thanking some other human.

      As a PROUD frequent blood donor, i PROUDLY deliver this message: EVERY CAPABLE PERSON SHOULD DONATE BLOOD - some person may privately thank you in his prays... or even publicly in some /. comment that you most probaly you will never read, but it would be in your "record".

      * Mister "sconeu" (64226) is the messenger - that's how i see it, no need for anyone to get upset.

      • I do give regularly and it is actually something that I need to do for my own benefit as well as for the benefit of others. I have O- blood but hemochromatosis [wikipedia.org] runs very strongly in my family and while I do not have it have always had a high level of iron in my blood. To help prevent it I give blood as the treatment if I develop it is similar but they can't use the blood so it would otherwise go to waste. So here I am providing the universal donor blood that always has a high but not too high (almost too hi
        • That's great - you help yourself and you help others. By the way, many people (without your condition) believe that donating blood once in a while is good for the health (i think it is an un-scientific claim, but as a blood donor i don't mind believing it!).
          • It is a simple way to give back and hopefully if I ever need blood it will be there for me. Having O- blood is great for donating but does limit the options if I happen to need it which is rather unfortunate. Also while I don't have hemochromatosis I don't want to develop it so getting drained periodically is just one thing I do and is less of a pain in the ass than giving up braunschweiger [wikipedia.org] from the meat processor I go to as they really add in the onion and garlic and it was wonderful.

      • One small poke in the arm for you, some bleeding, and maybe someone gets to live.

        Sad to say, donating blood is probably the most good I do my fellow human beings, of all my activities.

        I was kind of pissed when I found out that my trip to Sinaloa, Mexico disqualified me from donating for a year. (Out of fear of malaria.)

        --PM

        • Keep doing that good (donating blood), keep yourself modest (feeling that it's not good enough), and let karma (the real one, not Slashdot's!) do its thing!

  • Immortan Joe (Score:3)

    by rodrigoandrade ( 713371 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @02:15PM (#49884953)
    Don't let him know about this guy.

  • man with golden arm saves babies (Score:4, Funny)

    by ZippyTheChicken ( 3134311 ) on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @02:16PM (#49884965)
    was so hoping it wasn't about breach births

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pla ( 258480 )
      I'll admit it - I had the same thought on reading the headline. :)

  • In actuality the blood plasma was drawn from his gluteus maximus and he was known as the man with the "Golden Ass".

    • That would be "Golden Arse".

      If blood were taken that way, I think you'd probably get a very different type of person doing it. SLAP, SLAP, SLAP - nope, the vein still hasn't risen up, time to get the paddles ;)

      On a serious note, many thanks to James and the researchers who discovered this. Wasn't an issue for my family (Dad O-, mum O+, and my sister is O+ so OK for her too) but a literal lifesaver for many other families.

  • B- CMV- platelets are apparently good some some kids. Used to donate very often. Probably still should.

    • I am O Neg (universal donor*) CMV Neg (good for premature babies) and I used to donate regularly, up until some time in the late 90s when the Red Cross stopped accepting donations from individuals who had lived in areas where mad cow disease had occurred, like Europe. I lived in Germany as a dependent for 4 years and as a service member for 3 years.

      From what I understand, the reason is because of Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease, which they think is a mutated form of Mad Cow disease that has jumped to huma

      • The do have tests for it but the tests are expensive and slow. You blood is taken and tested for a range of issues and then treated and put into larger storages. The disease in question survives the treatment process and you need hardly any of it to contract the disease. The net result is that a large amount of blood becomes contaminated.

        It comes down to the fact that while valuable your blood is not as valuable as what the test costs to run.

        • So, they can't test my blood to see if I carry vCJD and then clear me to donate if it I don't carry it? I can't imagine that the cost of a test would outweigh potential lives saved.

          Also, if vCJD is such a concern, then why do they bar you from donating if you were there for 5 or more years, but if you were only there for 4 years, you're good to go?

          Not trying to start an argument, just trying to understand the logic here

          • Just had a look. the vCJD tests are actually a biopsy currently. There is a prototype blood screening option but it is only a prototype at this stage. There was a 2012 study on removed appendixes (32000) that showed a rate of about 1 in 2000 britons carrying the disease so it's not that rare.

            On top of that the prions can remain dormant for up to 50 years without a patient developing symptoms.

            As for value of your blood, there is some speculation that it is worth around about $12 per donation - http://frea [freakonomics.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gatkinso ( 15975 )

        For whatever reason the target recipients did better with their actual blood type. B- being 2% of the population (and half of that being CMV+) put it in high demand in that small audience (which is why I give myself a bronze since my bloods high value has such a narrow focus). Or so they said. All I know is that I donated gallons of the stuff, along with a shit load of platelets, because they said very young children needed it for the above reasons. Sounded good enough for me.

        Like you I then I went to I

        • I heard 5 years as well, but that figure refers to the cumulative amount of time spent abroad, not how long until you can donate again. It may be different for Middle East than it is for Europe. As far as I can tell from the Red Cross website, because I spent more than 5 years in Germany, I can never donate blood again.

          I know this isn't even remotely equivalent, but it rather makes me feel like a felon who can no longer vote, even though I did nothing wrong and was serving my country.

  • It says he's donated from his right arm for the past 60 years. Does it only work from his right arm? Do the antibodies stay in if they take blood from his left?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by GNious ( 953874 )

      Dude - blood-flow!
      Goes up in the left arm, down in the right one. If you try to draw on the left one, all you'll see is air being sucked into the veins!

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Dude - blood-flow!
        Goes up in the left arm, down in the right one. If you try to draw on the left one, all you'll see is air being sucked into the veins!

        There's enough non-critical people on slashdot that they might not realize that you are joking,. At least I hope you are.... the blood flow isn't strictly clock or counter clockwise in a body, otherwise any amputation (even a toe) or constriction would kill you if there were only 1 "loop".

      • Ummm . . . . I think not. I've donated plenty of times out of either arm. Didn't make much difference that I could see; but then, my pressure was on the high end of the acceptable range, so maybe it didn't matter.

    • My guess is he's left-handed. When they take blood they recommend taking it from your non-primary arm unless there's a specific reason not to.

      • Geez, I was just joking. I just thought it was weird for them to emphasize what arm they used in the summary. Why would they recommend taking it from your non-primary arm? I haven't donated blood but have had blood tests and have had IV fluids given to me and it didn't matter what arm was used.

  • Was he the Kid with the Golden Arm [wikipedia.org] when he was younger?
  • Your're telling me this antibody stuff can't be produced artificially?
  • He donated, and they profited.
  • That's a legitimate super-power right there. And it's not very often that a fictional superhero saves 2 million anything. Just sayin'.

  • And probably put the man in a book.

    Niven, Pournelle? You've put a few friends in wonderful stories. If you collaborate again, this man deserves it.

  • The article says he is irreplacable, and that about 17% of Australian women are at risk for the condition his blood helps to correct. Is there a backup plan for how to handle that many at-risk pregnancies when Mr. Harrison can no longer donate?

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