From All That’s Interesting: James Harrison, dubbed the “man with the golden arm” for donating his rare variety of life-saving blood plasma 1,173 times, has died at a nursing home in his native Australia at 88 years old.
For 64 years between 1954 and 2018, James Harrison donated blood roughly every two weeks. His plasma was rich in the rare anti-D antibody, which was used to create medications for expecting mothers diagnosed with Rhesus D, a rare disorder that causes a pregnant woman’s immune system to attack the fetus. Thanks to his donations, James Harrison is believed to have saved the lives of some 2.4 million babies. Now, even after his death at age 88 on February 17, his legacy will live on, as researchers continue to use his plasma to develop lab-grown anti-D to help pregnant women the world over.
