Legendary donor: a man who saved 2.4 million babies has died in Australia (3 photos)
His plasma saved the lives of 2.4 million babies because it contained a rare immunoglobulin (anti-D), which is used to create a special serum. It is given to pregnant women with a negative Rh factor to prevent Rh incompatibility between mother and child. 
James Harrison was 88 years old. He died in his sleep in a nursing home in New South Wales on February 17, but his family only announced his death today.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service wrote in Harrison's obituary that he decided to donate at the age of 14, after receiving a blood transfusion during major chest surgery.
He began donating plasma when he was 18, and continued to do so every two weeks until he was 81. In 2005, he set a world record for the most plasma donated — and until a man from the United States broke that record in 2022, he remained the world's most generous donor. 
Harrison's daughter, Tracy Mellowship, says her father was so proud of the fact that he saved so many lives without causing pain or harm to himself.
"He always said it didn't hurt, and the life you were saving could be your own," she recalls.
Both she and two of Harrison's grandchildren received a serum made from his blood plasma.
"It made [James] happy to hear about so many families like ours who were kept going because of his kindness," Mellowship says. 
Anti-Rhesus immunoglobulin (also known as anti-D) shots prevent hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDN). It occurs due to incompatibility of the blood of the mother and the unborn child, when the mother has a negative Rh factor and the child has a positive Rh factor. The immune system of the pregnant woman perceives the components of the fetus's blood as a foreign body and produces antibodies that attack it. This can seriously harm the health of the child, causing severe anemia, heart failure, and even death.
Until scientists developed this medicine in the mid-sixties, every second baby with HDN died.
It is still unknown why Harrison's blood was so rich in these immunoglobulins. Some studies suggest it may be related to a blood transfusion he received as a teenager.
There are just under 200 such donors in Australia, helping about 45,000 mothers and their children every year, according to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.
