James Harrison, an ordinary man like anybody else has been given the title “The Man with the Golden Arm”. As one among the commons, he loves his daughter and grandchildren, has a passion for collecting stamps and loves his walks on Australia’s central coast.
But his exceptional deed of donating blood plasma from his right arm for the past 60 years has been a priceless gift for the two million babies. Harrison has a rare blood type which has a unique antibody that prevents women with rhesus-negative blood from developing RhD antibodies during pregnancy. Every batch of Anti-D, life-saving medication made from James’ blood is given to moms whose blood is at risk of attacking their unborn babies. Doctors feel that Harrison is irreplaceable for them as he is one of no more than 50 people in Australia known to have the antibodies. He is considered a national hero and has honors to his credit for donating plasma more than 1,000 times.
