The Man With The Golden Arm

As you know, we like cool nicknames. The Hero of Two Worlds (Lafayette), He Who Sees In The Dark (Minnesotan, Frederick Burnham, American scout) and the Black Swallow of Death (Eugene Bullard, French flying ace) are just a few examples of nicknames that have sent us down internet rabbit holes, studying history's most interesting (often violent) people (we will cover their stories later). The Man With The Golden Arm does not necessarily fit the mold. With a name reminiscent of a James Bond villain, and a kill count much lower than most other people to receive cool nicknames, why does his nickname deserve to be considered "cool" (the highest praise for a nickname).

The Man With The Golden Arm has saved over 2,000,000 lives. To put that in perspective, that is more than the populations of nearly 70 countries. A country made up of just human beings saved by The Man With The Golden Arm would settle nicely between Latvia and Slovenia on the list of most populous country, at number 145. How does Golden Arm do it? He must have had some run-in with a radioactive watch or been bit by a goldfish or something, right? Nope, he almost died.

James Harrison was 14 years old in 1950 when he underwent a chest surgery. This chest surgery required 13 liters of blood (the human body contains 5.5 liters of blood). After 3 months in the hospital (more than enough time to reflect), Harrison realized that it was blood donations that had kept him alive, and he vowed to donate as often as he could.

Harrison started donating at 18 years old (then the age requirement in Australia), and after a few donations they found that his blood contained unusually strong and persistent antibodies against the newly discovered D Rh group antigen, which causes rhesus disease in newborns. And by newly discovered, I mean that they had only discovered the antigen in 1937 and only discovered the antibodies in 1960 (he started donating in 1954). Rhesus disease occurs when a small amount of the baby's blood enters the mother during pregnancy. It can lead to mild symptoms in the newborn, such as anemia, or severe ones, such as stillbirth and infant heart failure.

After making this discovery, doctors urged Harrison to start donating plasma (also a newer concept, popularized in the 1940's and 50's). Plasma can be donated much more frequently than blood, and he began donating every 2 weeks. They started using his antibody rich plasma in treatments for women who may have incompatible blood with their children. Shortly after his donations began and research was done on his blood, his life was insured for $1,000,000, a testament to the uniqueness of this discovery. In May 2011, he reached his 1,000th donation and his donations have estimated to help save over 2.4 million babies. As of 2015, every single mother and child treated for the D Rh group antigen had been treated with his plasma. Every single one.

When asked how he would feel if someone broke his record for donations, he responded: "I could say it's the only record that I hope is broken, because if they do, they have donated a thousand donations."

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