The Man with the Golden Arm

Aussie James Harrison gave blood close to 1,200 times over a 60 year period and saved 2.5 million babies in the process. That makes him a hero. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:42Speaker 00

  Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:52Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck, and it's just us, and that's okay, because we're gonna get bloody here on this episode of Stuff You Should Know. I just had a cockroach crawl over my barefoot. I've got a cockroach story for you. First of all, how are you doing? You okay with that cockroach experience you just had? It's not my favorite thing. Secondly, why are you barefoot? We're working.

• 2:18Speaker 02

  You know, I don't put on shoes unless I have to.

• 2:21Josh Clark?

  Thirdly, you want to hear my cockroach story?

• 2:25Speaker 02

  Uh, yes, although I will quickly say that's not the worst. The worst cockroach story I've ever had is when I saw one as I was turning out the light fall from a ceiling above my bed.

• 2:37Josh Clark?

  Yikes.

• 2:38Speaker 02

  And then the light went off. And then right back on.

• 2:41Josh Clark?

  You heard the cockroach go nighty night.

• 2:43Speaker 02

  What's yours?

• 2:44Josh Clark?

  It just happened today. I don't know if this is my worst or not, it's pretty bad. I went to go pour coffee from our coffee pot and a roach spilled out along with the coffee into my mug. It was like in the port, the top that you can take off. He was in the little spout, apparently.

• 3:04Speaker 02

  I just remembered I had the worst one because I think this top's yours. I drank a cockroach in some red wine one time.

• 3:11Josh Clark?

  That's the worst one. There you go. Could you feel it crawling around in your gullet?

• 3:16Speaker 02

  Swimming through the red wine in my mouth and I just spit it out. And I'm sure everyone just heard me stomping in the background.

• 3:25Josh Clark?

  Tell me you didn't.

• 3:27Speaker 02

  Dude, you want me to get up in the middle of a recording and save a cockroach?

• 3:31Josh Clark?

  I'd wait, yeah.

• 3:32Speaker 02

  No, I don't save cockroaches. I don't feel bad about it either. We've talked about this before.

• 3:37Josh Clark?

  I think we have.

• 3:38Speaker 02

  Fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, cockroaches, everything else I'll save.

• 3:41Josh Clark?

  Fleas, ticks and mosquitoes.

• 3:43Speaker 02

  I know.

• 3:44Josh Clark?

  Cockroaches I'll leave alone.

• 3:45Speaker 02

  I know. You've claimed that many times. We all know you're better.

• 3:49Josh Clark?

  I saw a cartoon. It was, um, it was the annual meeting of insects people like. And it was, they switched to the next panel and it was just a butterfly sitting alone at a conference table.

• 4:01Speaker 02

  That's cute. And, but you know, you, you can't save a cockroach. If they just crawled into the cup, I might think about it, but they don't.

• 4:09Josh Clark?

  Okay, I disagree. I try to get them with a paper towel, lightly pick them up and throw them outside and say, sayonara.

• 4:18Speaker 02

  Sure, they suffer no damage.

• 4:20Josh Clark?

  Probably not. They're pretty tough.

• 4:21Speaker 02

  Okay. This one wasn't.

• 4:23Josh Clark?

  Let's get a, let's get, this is terrible. Let's get to this episode because this is a profile in courage and heroism of an everyday guy who found out he was a little more special than the rest of us and he put it to good use. And his name is James Harrison? Is that how, am I saying that correctly?

• 4:46Speaker 02

  I think so. Australia's own James Harrison, who is the, probably the most prolific blood donor in maybe human history, he donated blood 1,173 times over a 60-year period.

• 4:58Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 4:59Speaker 02

  And is credited with saving the lives of 2.4 million babies.

• 5:02Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 5:03Speaker 02

  Referred to as the man with the golden arm. And we need to back up a second. You can either pause and go listen to our episode on blood types.

• 5:13Josh Clark?

  That was a live one, right?

• 5:14Speaker 02

  I think so. Or you can listen to a quick explanation of what RH disease is and what RH incompatibility is. Because when you have a blood type, you've, you've heard, now we know that you can be like positive or negative, like, oh, positive, oh, negative. That negative or positive is your RH factor, so named after the RH rhesus monkey, inadvertently, not correctly named. And so that's a RH factor, that's a, it's a protein found on the outside of your red blood cells and then you either have it or you don't. It's an inherited thing.

• 5:49Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 5:50Speaker 02

  85% of babies that are born are RH positive, which means they have that protein. But you either have it or you don't. And that becomes incompatible when it doesn't match up with what your mom has.

• 6:05Josh Clark?

  Right. Yeah, that's a real problem because the, if your mom is RH negative, meaning she doesn't have those proteins, her body's never been exposed to those proteins. So when she has a baby developing in her stomach, her womb, I guess you'd call it.

• 6:22Josh Clark?

  And some of those red blood cells cross the placental barrier. Her body flips out and is like, what is this? We need to create some antibodies to attack this. And those antibodies attack the red blood cells, the protein on the red blood cells, the RH factor, and tear them apart. And that is not what you want happening to your fetus while it's developing in your womb.

• 6:46Speaker 02

  No, it's not. And just to be clear, it's not, it's not a problem at all to have a negative blood type. It's just this incompatibility in pregnancy is a problem. And on the first pregnancy, this can happen and everything is likely going to be okay. It's the subsequent pregnancies that are the issue. And so to prevent this from happening, a pregnant person is giving immunoglobulin. I have such a hard time saying that. And that's, that prevents those antibodies from forming and attacking. And it's a, it's a done in the way of a plasma injection called anti-D.

• 7:23Josh Clark?

  Right. And the reason why the first birth is okay is because the mom's body is still generating antibodies. Cause again, these are brand spanking new for her immune system. And so when the, the first baby comes out, her immune system's like, yeah, that's right. Walk away, walk away. And then when the second baby comes, it's ready. And that's when it really becomes a problem. And it can result in, and very frequently results in stillborn babies and newborn deaths as well. So if it, if it wasn't bad enough, just add dying babies to it and it suddenly becomes much more urgent. And it's not that rare either is the thing.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, they didn't even know about this until 1939, the RH factor. Before that, it was just the, the ABO system. But there was a woman who had given birth to a stillborn baby, was given a transfusion from her husband and had an adverse reaction despite having a matching blood type. So that's when scientists figured out like, oh, hey, there's another factor here. And it's this negative and positive RH factor. And another Australian, a guy named John Gorman, a doctor, was working in blood banking. And this was in 1958.

• 8:38Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:39Speaker 02

  He said, hey, I think that if we give these mothers an RH antibody, they wouldn't make any of that antibody themselves. So it's kind of like a weird reverse treatment.

• 8:50Josh Clark?

  Right, yeah, and that's it's really worth saying it's weird because they don't know still to this day exactly how it happens, or how it protects developing fetuses, infants. They think the best guess is that these antibodies that they consider passive antibodies, they don't attack the red blood cells of the developing child. Instead, they actually attach to it an active protective layer, essentially like Obi-Wan saying to the mom's immune system, "These are not the red blood cells that you seek."

• 9:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:27Josh Clark?

  "Not the factor that you're interested in. Beat it," in the words of Obi-Wan, like I said.

• 9:32Speaker 02

  So, Dr. Gorman and his research partner, they tested this idea out on prisoners, on male prisoners at Sing Sing Prison in New York, injecting that RH negative into them with antibodies and then measuring the response, and they found that it worked and that it was safe. Obviously, not the most ethical thing. Theoretically, I guess, these were volunteers, but you know how that goes. But the question still remained, like, will it save a baby? And it turns out that his sister-in-law, Kath, was a nurse and was RH negative, and his brother, her husband, was RH positive, and they were like, "Hey, we'll be the guinea pigs in this one. Let's do it."

• 10:17Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so the problem was is that John Gorman's brother and sister-in-law, Kath and Frank, lived in London at the time. And Gorman, like you said, was in America, even though he was Australian. It's a brain buster, I know. But the upshot of it is that Gorman sent this anti-D inoculation, essentially, that he was testing out, to the Gormans in London. They had to go to Heathrow to pick it up. John Gorman had to get it to them so quickly, he didn't even fill out paperwork. He just sent it like it was...

• 10:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:52Josh Clark?

  I don't know, like a...

• 10:53Speaker 02

  Deodorant?

• 10:54Josh Clark?

  A push-pop or something like that.

• 10:56Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 10:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah, deodorant, great. And they had to go to Heathrow to pick it up. That's how time urgent this was, and if there was, if it wasn't urgent before, it was when they got to Heathrow, because Kath went into labor when they were picking up this injection.

• 11:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, so they were somehow managed to talk this doctor into administering this treatment. Which that's probably the most surprising thing that this doctor went along with it. But that doctor did, and Kath Gorman had a healthy son. And then she had another healthy son a year later after giving this injection. And they were like, hey, it worked. And now it's given to women in the 28th week of pregnancy. And if the baby is found out to be RH positive, given again within 72 hours of giving birth.

• 11:41Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think one of the other things that stood out to me about Kath and Frank Gorman's story is that the doctor who gave them the injection was persuaded to do so also by a team of, a rival team from Liverpool, who were also working on some sort of antidote to RH factor disease. So they basically said like, this is actually going to launch John Gorman into the lead here, even though we're competing to come up with this. But seriously, you should, you should inject her with this. It's going to be great.

• 12:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:17Josh Clark?

  So they, they put, they put saving babies before their own career.

• 12:20Speaker 02

  That's great.

• 12:21Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:22Speaker 02

  Uh, I think Gorman ended up saying that it was the most cost effective drug ever produced. Uh, in 50 years, there have been no fatalities from this treatment. And he said, it saves about a billion dollars every year by preventing high risk RH pregnancies.

• 12:37Josh Clark?

  Yeah. So it was really something. The thing is, you still need to this day, human blood to make the anti D immunoglobulin, globulin. It is hard to say, Chuck.

• 12:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:52Josh Clark?

  Inoculation.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, plasma, technically, yeah.

• 12:54Josh Clark?

  Yes. And this is where James Harrison comes in, but he doesn't come in yet, dear people, because you are going to have to pay through the nose to get to him by listening to these commercials.

• 13:17Josh Clark?

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• 16:40Josh Clark?

  Okay, everybody, thanks for listening to those commercials. We're back and it's time that we really introduce you to James Harrison. He was an amazing guy, but I feel like we should go back to before he was a full guy, when he was just a 14-year-old, because he underwent a really big-time surgery and I could not find out why, but he had to have an entire lung removed, again at age 14.

• 17:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's not a lot about the guy. Even when you read his obituary, the just details are scant and I'm sort of feel like he probably wanted it that way, as a kind of a low-key awesome dude. But yeah, at 14, he had a lung removed. He was in the hospital for three months and during that time, he required almost two gallons of blood, 13 units of donor blood. A human adult has about 10 units of blood, so a 14-year-old wouldn't even have that much. So basically, a full plus transfusion of his blood that saved his life and comes out of it as a 14-year-old. And his dad explains what happened and he's like, "I know my calling.

• 17:46Speaker 02

  Like, when I come out of this and I'm able to be old enough to give blood and plasma, like, that's what I'm gonna do with my life."

• 17:52Josh Clark?

  Yeah, his dad was already a blood donor too, so I'm sure it was gratifying for him. And James Harrison, I guess he had to wait a few years before he was eligible to donate blood. But once he did, he started doing it right off the bat, right when he could.

• 18:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:09Josh Clark?

  But it took another 11 years, I guess when he was in his early 30s, he had something like that, or about to be 30, before the doctors were like, hey, hey, this guy's something special. He's got some dynamite plasma because they think when he got all of that blood, he was RH negative, but he got a lot of RH positive blood. And his body started making RH positive antibodies that can just knock your socks off. So this guy, James Harrison, when he was 14, essentially acted inadvertently as a human test tube or Petri dish, where they put together RH negative and RH positive, shook it up, and this guy started making antibodies

• 18:52Josh Clark?

  for the rest of his life that would go on to save babies.

• 18:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, his, his, his stuff was so good, and he was so prolific and dedicated, and we'll talk more about that. There was a doctor that said in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2018 that every ampule of anti-D ever made in Australia has James in it.

• 19:12Josh Clark?

  Yeah, primo stuff.

• 19:15Speaker 02

  Pretty cool. So the 2.4 million babies he saved, not an exact number, obviously, but they basically did a calculation where they analyzed birth data from 1964 moving forward, accounted for the people who got this anti-D treatment, and then weighed overall mortality, mortality risk from RH disease, and came up with that number, two and a half million babies.

• 19:36Josh Clark?

  Yeah, because I mean, when you donate blood, you do save lives, but you don't necessarily save babies' lives. Like, James Harrison was a baby-saving machine.

• 19:47Speaker 02

  That's right. They've tried a synthetic version, but they're still not there yet. So they're still reliant on people donating their blood and plasma. But the synthetic that they've been working on it, they call it James in a Jar, which is kind of cute as well.

• 20:02Josh Clark?

  Right, for sure. So like you said, it is kind of tough to find much about James Harrison's life other than his blood donation. Laura Clausen, Dr. Claw, helped us with this one. And she found out that he was a clerk in the Regional Railway Authority and his wife, his beloved wife Barbara, who died in 2005, was a teacher. And Harrison's dedication was such that when they went on vacation, whenever they went on vacation, they would putz around Australia in a camper. He would find the closest blood donation clinic and go donate blood. And the reason why he did that so often was because with plasma donations,

• 20:44Josh Clark?

  your body regenerates the plasma so quickly, I think within 48 hours, that in some cases, in some countries, you can donate plasma a couple of times a week rather than the, I can't remember, it's several weeks, if not a month or more, that you have to wait to donate whole blood, like the regular kind.

• 21:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, you have to wait two weeks for plasma even. But he wanted to donate so frequently, they would bend the rules. And like, they said that he would come in at day like 10 and 11 sometimes and be like, come on, just take my plasma, I'll be fine. And they did oftentimes. And they don't get paid for it. You can get paid, it's a sort of a, I don't know how common it is, but it's an old trick if you're really broke and can't make rent to sell plasma in the United States because you can get paid for donating plasma. But he didn't get paid for any of this either.

• 21:37Josh Clark?

  No, we should also say, if you've never donated plasma, but you've donated blood, it's slightly different. Donating blood can take 15 minutes, maybe? Donating plasma is a whole thing where they take your blood out, just like they do with whole blood, and then they run it through a machine that separates the plasma from the platelets and the red and white blood cells and returns the red and white blood cells to you. And the whole process takes about an hour rather than a quarter of an hour, and it has all the other stuff, the lead up and the recovery that a whole blood donation takes. So when you take that into account, James Harrison making these donations, it's just even that much more hat removal worthy.

• 22:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, like, I mean, one of these guys said it's like a half a day, basically, when you count in travel and all that.

• 22:27Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 22:27Speaker 02

  So if he don't, you know, let's say that's like four hours. And if you donated, you know, 11, I mean, how many times was it 1100 plus?

• 22:36Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 22:37Speaker 02

  Like, that's just thousands and thousands of hours of his life where he's trying to donate even more frequently. Like, hey, it's been 10 days. Get me in there. I'm ready.

• 22:45Josh Clark?

  For sure. I'm sure his coworkers were like, oh, James gets to take a four hour lunch break every, every couple of weeks. And his supervisor is like, let me tell you about James and what he's doing with this four hour lunch.

• 22:57Speaker 02

  Exactly. You like saving babies?

• 22:59Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 22:59Speaker 02

  So he and his wife Barbara had a daughter and two grandchildren. And the daughter was an anti D recipient herself. And she made a big statement after he died. As an anti D recipient myself, he has left the family behind that may not have existed without his precious donations. And I believe a granddaughter in law, Rebecca Meliship, also got the anti D treatment. So he even furthered his own family by helping out his daughter and granddaughter in law.

• 23:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I guess he had four great grandchildren when he died this past February in 2025.

• 23:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:38Josh Clark?

  And yeah, like she said, like, you can make a really good case that these people would not necessarily exist without him donating his very special plasma. And this was like not, it's not like his family wasn't aware of this. Like, this was a big celebrated thing, not just with this family, but in Australia. And so his grandson Scott turned 16 and said, I want to join the family racket and start donating blood too. So the first time he gave blood, he went with his grandfather, took him with him.

• 24:09Speaker 02

  Love it.

• 24:09Josh Clark?

  And so Scott's first time was his grandfather's 1,000th donation too. And apparently the whole family donates blood, which, I mean, imagine being the one family member who's like, no, I don't feel like it. And everybody is donating it, but you know, there's one, you know, there's one.

• 24:26Speaker 02

  Family shame.

• 24:27Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 24:28Speaker 02

  He, uh, his wife passed away Barbara in, um, 2005. So very dark times for him and he pressed through and did not let that disrupt his donation schedule. So for the last 20 years of his life, as a widower, he, uh, he, you know, kept, kept giving that, that stuff, even though he hated needles, he hated the sight of blood and he had a very low threshold for pain.

• 24:51Josh Clark?

  Yep. There it is. Our Oh, Henry style ironic twist.

• 24:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:55Josh Clark?

  The man who gave blood 1,173 times to save 2.4 million babies was afraid of needles.

• 25:02Speaker 02

  That's right. And he had a favorite arm too, right?

• 25:05Josh Clark?

  Yeah. His right arm, he said, uh, at some point that, uh, he feels like, and he even admitted it could be placebo effect, but, um, he can feel them injecting the IV into his left arm, but he doesn't feel it in his right arm. So out of those 1,173 times, only about 10 were in his left arm.

• 25:27Speaker 02

  Yeah. Should we take a break?

• 25:29Josh Clark?

  We should.

• 25:30Speaker 02

  All right. We'll take a break and, uh, finish up right after this.

• 25:46Josh Clark?

  Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal on the truck from your local Toyota dealer.

• 25:55Speaker 02

  That's right. Make a smart buy on the off-road Ready Tacoma or Half-Ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and longest-lasting trucks. Built with the strength for the tough jobs, the tech to power your next big adventure, and the rugged style for everything in between.

• 26:08Josh Clark?

  Or discover Toyota's off-road lineup, including the iconic 4Runner and Land Cruiser, designed to go beyond the everyday. And with Toyota's proven reputation for quality and reliability, plus hybrid power on many models, you can get more for every mile and drive for less along the way.

• 26:24Speaker 02

  That's right. And long after you leave the lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So you can trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

• 26:48Speaker 02

  Hey, everybody. If you've been thinking about securing your home, there's no better time to protect it with SimpliSafe. Right now, you can save 70% on a new system, their biggest savings of the year. You've heard us talk about SimpliSafe before, and you know it's designed to keep threats away from the door and your loved ones safe in the first place. If you thought about SimpliSafe at all, now is the time to finally secure your home.

• 27:07Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Unlike traditional security systems that only alert you after a break-in is already underway, SimpliSafe is built to stop it before it starts. Their agents intervene in under 30 seconds, speaking through the camera to stop an intruder in their tracks and calling for urgent 911 dispatch when it's needed most.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  That's right. And SimpliSafe has an offer for our listeners now with their biggest savings of the year, 70% off your new system with professional monitoring when you visit simplisafe.com/stuff. That's simplisafe.com/stuff. And when you order, write in the code STUFF at checkout. It tells them we sent you, and it really helps the show. SimpliSafe, ahead of crime, in real time.

• 27:59Speaker 02

  All right, so we're back to talk a little bit more about the dedication of James Harrison, the most prolific blood donor and plasma donor in history, even in his older years, because he gave until he was 81. In 2018, they finally said, "You gotta stop." And he didn't want to stop, but they were like, "For your own health, you can't keep doing this." But up until that point, he would ride the train an hour each way to go to this donation center. That was the closest one, or at least that was the regular one that he became accustomed to. And he was really broken up. He said, "It's a sad day for me, the end of a long run. I'd keep going on if they let me." And this is just, I have a hard time even getting through this sentence, but the last

• 28:41Speaker 02

  time he gave the blood, he was surrounded by moms and babies that he had saved.

• 28:46Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  Incredible.

• 28:48Josh Clark?

  Pretty amazing, yeah. Apparently, even though he was something of a celebrity, at least at blood banks in Australia, and I think well beyond that too, he was very unassuming in that. He never walked in, you know, wearing sunglasses and a scarf. The man with the golden arm is here. Exactly. And just wearing his jacket over his shoulders.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  Right, yeah.

• 29:11Josh Clark?

  He instead would just kind of chit chat other people who were giving donations and kind of telling them like, "Hey, you're doing something great." But he didn't say, "And I should know because I've saved 2.4 million babies." He was not that kind of person. I feel like this would be a different episode if he had been that kind of person. It'd still be worth talking about, but maybe less celebratory, I don't know. But this guy doesn't seem to have really been bad at all in any way, shape or form. And we really looked.

• 29:41Speaker 02

  Well, here's a couple of quotes. "It becomes quite humbling when they say, 'Oh, you've done this,' or 'You've done that,' or 'You're a hero.' It's something I can do. It's one of my talents, probably my only talent, is that I can be a blood donor. And that saving one baby is good, saving 2 million is hard to get your head around. But if they claim that's what it is, I'm glad to have done it."

• 30:01Josh Clark?

  And like you just imagine every one of these quotes, he's got his hands in his pockets and he's just kind of kicking around some pebbles with his feet looking down.

• 30:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm gonna get a shirt that says, what would James Harrison do?

• 30:13Josh Clark?

  Right. Man, one of my favorite shirts of all time is that what would Jason do? It's like a hockey mask instead of a J.

• 30:22Speaker 02

  That's funny.

• 30:23Josh Clark?

  Just the implications behind the whole thing make it even funnier too, you know?

• 30:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, what would Jason do? He'd gill.

• 30:29Josh Clark?

  He'd just slaughter everybody with a machete. No, I love that T-shirt, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

• 30:36Speaker 02

  Do you have it?

• 30:37Josh Clark?

  No, I've looked before and I can't find the exact one. There was a guy who we worked with who wore one to work once and I was like, that shirt's awesome, but also unsettling in the office setting.

• 30:47Speaker 02

  Who was it, do you know?

• 30:48Josh Clark?

  I can't remember his name. He was a big guy and he looked like the kind who would wear that shirt. He looked like he was clearly into horror movies.

• 30:56Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 30:56Josh Clark?

  He was strapping, large dude. I cannot remember his name. He was a good guy.

• 31:02Speaker 02

  Okay, was this way back in the day? Was this buckhead?

• 31:05Josh Clark?

  Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, way back in the day.

• 31:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was back in the times where there were so many people working in our office. I didn't know half of them were.

• 31:12Josh Clark?

  You would have interacted with this guy. He was one of the writers.

• 31:15Speaker 02

  Oh, now I remember that guy.

• 31:18Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that guy.

• 31:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, the big dude.

• 31:20Josh Clark?

  Yes.

• 31:20Speaker 02

  Like just very tall, big guy.

• 31:22Josh Clark?

  Yes.

• 31:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, he looked like a football player.

• 31:25Josh Clark?

  Yeah, kind of. Do you remember that shirt?

• 31:28Speaker 02

  Hmm, no, but eh, man, what a vague memory of that guy. I'd totally remember Jerry would know, but she's not here.

• 31:33Josh Clark?

  No, she's not here as usual.

• 31:37Speaker 02

  So back to James Harrison, what would he do? Sadly, he would eventually pass, but he lived to be 88. And like you mentioned, he'd just died recently in February of this year. But before he passed in 1999, which means his wife Barbara got to see this, who was also a blood donor, by the way, quite regular.

• 31:55Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  He received the Medal of Order in Australia for his efforts.

• 31:58Josh Clark?

  That's amazing. Again, almost two and a half million babies just saved by this guy. And he's not the only one. He's one of just a small number of people, it turns out, who are able to donate blood because they produce the antibody needed to create the anti-D inoculation. When this first was realized, I guess shortly after 1958, a group of women in Winnipeg in Canada got together and they became known as the RH Ladies of Winnipeg. And they started donating plasma to make the Canadian version of anti-D winrow.

• 32:42Josh Clark?

  And one of them was a woman named Mary Talu, who had lost three different babies to RH incompatibility. And she went on to donate for 15 years. And again, this is not normal blood. These people's blood is incredibly special and it saves babies.

• 33:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's less than 200 anti-D donors in Australia. One of those is a woman named Kiran Froes. I don't know how you pronounce that. Froes?

• 33:10Josh Clark?

  Freeze?

• 33:12Speaker 02

  Freeze, maybe? It's either the O silent or the E is silent. But Kiran was a, is a midwife and benefited from the anti-D drug during her own pregnancies. And she learned that people who had the right kind of blood could donate for this. And she advocated to be allowed to do so and apparently had to like, kind of lobby to be able to do it, right?

• 33:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah, because she didn't naturally make the antibodies herself like other people, like James Harrison does. There's a way that you can actually sensitize people by exposing them to the antibodies. And then over time, their body will start making the antibodies themselves, these protective ones. And that's what she, she did. She's like, I want to volunteer to be inoculated with this stuff so that I can start producing this plasma. And she had to prove that she was no longer able to have children. She had to send her medical records showing her hysterectomy to Lifeblood, the Australian blood donation people, before they would even let her like get into this program.

• 34:16Speaker 02

  Yeah. And we can't forget about the people who also allow that to happen by contributing to that program despite not having that RH negative blood.

• 34:25Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 34:25Speaker 02

  Like, she gets those sensitization boosters from people donating their blood to be transfused into her and others like her.

• 34:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And from what I saw, there's only one, there's one matched donor that donates, when they go in to give blood, and they're anonymous, when they go in to give blood, their blood is taken and given specifically to Karen Froze or Freeze. So like, this person is, it's just cool that they're anonymous too, and that that's what they're doing. Like, that's some pretty niche blood donation, if you think about it, you know?

• 34:58Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, they're, they're doing the right thing in Australia. Wealthier countries, obviously, have a better time with this, but very sadly, as you guessed it, studies estimate that half the women in the world who need treatment don't get it in developing countries, obviously, most acutely. 50,000 fetuses and 114,000 newborns die every year as a result of this RH incompatibility who can't get this treatment. And the United States, we don't do a great job donating blood, so I'm calling people out and asking you to step up to the table and to that needle. 62% of the population is eligible to donate,

• 35:38Speaker 02

  but 3% do so, compared to 57% in Australia that are eligible, and 14% do so. So, they could kick it up a bit too, but that 3% is shameful.

• 35:50Josh Clark?

  Yeah. It's not totally out of bounds, though, with other industrialized Western countries. The UK, 2.6% of the population donates, 4% in France, and then somewhere between 5 and 6 for Denmark, Germany, Greece, and Cyprus. So, yeah, we could definitely do a lot better. It seems like, from what I can tell, I look to find what country has the most blood donors. From what I can tell, Australia, far and away, leads the pack.

• 36:20Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 36:20Josh Clark?

  In the whole world. That's my own research. Take it or leave it. I didn't do any math, so it is possible it's accurate. But that seems to be the, the highest percentage I could find was Australia's.

• 36:32Speaker 02

  I bet you anything old James Harrison has something to do with that in the news and stories surrounding his, his efforts.

• 36:40Josh Clark?

  For sure. I would think so, too.

• 36:42Speaker 02

  This has spurred me to get out there and do this on the reg too, so I'm gonna donate some blood next week.

• 36:47Josh Clark?

  Good for you, buddy. I'm gonna get back to it, too. Yumi introduced me to it, and I've definitely fallen off, so let's go together. We can hold hands while we donate.

• 36:55Speaker 02

  Aw.

• 36:56Josh Clark?

  It'd be pretty cute.

• 36:57Speaker 02

  That would be cute.

• 36:59Josh Clark?

  And you know what? I'm gonna get us matching blankets with James Harrison's picture on it.

• 37:04Speaker 02

  Very nice.

• 37:05Josh Clark?

  Okay, well Chuck said "very nice," which is what I was fishing for, which means also he just triggered listener mail.

• 37:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, this is, I guess, a bit of a correction for the heavy metal episode. Hey, guys, there were a few mistakes that I won't hassle you about. After all, I didn't catch anything too significant. However, I should tell you that Rob Halford's leather infatuation did not come from his time in S&M clubs and bars. In his own book, Biblical Heavy Metal Scriptures, he has a chapter called "Dentum and Leather," where he speaks about how although it did spawn a leather fetish, his love for denim and leather came from bands, other bands like Saxon, who wore the combination and turned it into a heavy metal uniform of sorts. He's even quoting him. "Others reckon that I started wearing my studs in leather as a means to express my repressed homosexuality. No, I effing didn't. Denim and leather has

• 37:58Speaker 02

  been part of metal basically from the beginning. It was a visual display of how the originators felt on the inside, the way the music sounded, the way they felt. Rebellious." His book is great, by the way. I recommend it if you're into ancient metal gods speaking on the topic. Again, thank you so much. For the three-part episode, guys, that has to be a record, right? Including the horns episode? I call that a triple. Much love to you all. That is from Joshua Ernstberger of Ogden, Utah.

• 38:23Josh Clark?

  Very nice. Thanks, Joshua. Thanks for setting us straight. We appreciate that, especially from another Josh. You know what I'm saying?

• 38:30Speaker 02

  That's right. And you know what? In your defense, that sounds like the kind of thing that is just everywhere on the internet.

• 38:35Josh Clark?

  I saw it everywhere, and I had no reason to doubt it.

• 38:40Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 38:40Josh Clark?

  Because I hadn't read Rob Halford's autobiography, which was just stupid of me.

• 38:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, you didn't have time.

• 38:46Josh Clark?

  Sorry I fell for it, everybody. If you want to get in touch with us like Joshua did and set us straight, you too can send us an email. Send it off to [email protected].

• 39:02Speaker 00

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, MyHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 39:17Josh Clark?

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