The real quest for fake blood

In his free time, while working as a clerk at a local Australian railway, James Harrison saved millions of lives — with his blood.

Harrison had particularly special plasma: It had a rare antibody that doctors used to make a medication for pregnant mothers with different blood types from their newborns. When this happens, it can lead to the mother’s immune system attacking the still-developing red blood cells of the fetus.

But it’s not like the doctors drew blood one time, found this special antibody, and made a cure that they could end up reusing. Harrison had to keep donating his blood. Almost 1,200 times.

He was terrified of needles, he had to travel an hour each way to the lab, and still, he kept donating over and over, every two weeks or so. For 64 consecutive years, until he died in his sleep in February, having saved almost 2.5 million babies in Australia.

But the reason he had to do all this in the first place is because scientists still don’t really understand blood.

Nicola Twilley, the host of Vox Media’s Gastropod podcast, wrote a piece for the New Yorker earlier this year about blood and the scientists trying to understand how it does what it does. On the latest episode of the Unexplainable podcast, she spoke with host Noam Hassenfeld about the quest for artificial blood on the latest. Listen to their conversation below, or in the feed of your favorite podcast app.

Correction, April 24, 10 am: This story, originally published April 23, misstated the date of James Harrison’s death. It was in February.

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