“擁有金手臂的男人”：澳洲男子獻(xiàn)血救百萬(wàn)嬰兒

When he was 14, James Harrison needed surgery. And as he would come to find out, he would also need a significant amount of strangers’ blood to survive it.

詹姆斯·哈里森(James Harrison)14歲時(shí)曾接受過(guò)手術(shù)。后來(lái)他得知，自己能活下來(lái)還要靠大量來(lái)自陌生人的血液。

After he had recovered and as soon as he became an adult, Mr. Harrison felt compelled to pay it forward, he said. For the next 60 years he suppressed his strong distaste for needles — he says he has never watched one go into his arm — and gave blood every few weeks at locations across Australia.

長(zhǎng)大后，已康復(fù)的哈里森感覺(jué)自己必須作出回報(bào)。在接下來(lái)的60年里，他壓抑著自己對(duì)針頭的強(qiáng)烈厭惡——他說(shuō)他自己從未看著針頭扎進(jìn)手臂——每隔幾周就去澳大利亞的各個(gè)地方獻(xiàn)血。

Along the way, medical professionals made a stunning discovery: Mr. Harrison’s blood contained a rare antibody necessary to make a pioneering medication that officials at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service said had helped save more than two million babies from a potentially fatal disease.

與此同時(shí)，醫(yī)生有了一個(gè)驚人的發(fā)現(xiàn)：哈里森的血液里含有一種制作開(kāi)創(chuàng)性藥物所需的罕見(jiàn)抗體，澳大利亞紅十字會(huì)血液服務(wù)處稱(chēng)，這種藥物已幫助挽救了超過(guò)兩百萬(wàn)可能會(huì)患上致命疾病的嬰兒。

They said more than three million doses of Anti-D, as the medication containing Mr. Harrison’s blood is called, have been issued to mothers since 1967.

他們表示自1967年起，已有超過(guò)三百萬(wàn)劑抗-D藥物——即含有哈里森血液的藥物——被發(fā)放給了母親們。

On Friday, Mr. Harrison took his seat at Town Hall Blood Donor Center in Sydney for what would be his last donation. Medical officials at the Red Cross decided that at 81, their valued donor should stop giving to protect his own health.

周五，哈里森坐在了悉尼市政廳獻(xiàn)血中心內(nèi)，準(zhǔn)備進(jìn)行最后一次獻(xiàn)血。紅十字會(huì)的醫(yī)生決定，他們的這位寶貴獻(xiàn)血者應(yīng)在81歲時(shí)停止獻(xiàn)血，以保證他自己的健康。

Video recordings of the episode show Mr. Harrison — known to some as “the man with the golden arm” — grasping a stress ball as four silver balloons danced above him. The balloons were shaped in the numerals 1 1 7 3 — representing the total number of times Mr. Harrison has given blood.

視頻記錄了被人熟知為“擁有金手臂的男人”的這次獻(xiàn)血，握著壓力球，四個(gè)銀色氣球在他頭頂舞動(dòng)。氣球的形狀是數(shù)字1、1、7、3，代表著哈里森獻(xiàn)血的總次數(shù)。

“The end of an era,” Mr. Harrison, a retired railway administrator, said on Sunday from his home in New South Wales. “It was sad because I felt like I could keep going.”

“一個(gè)時(shí)代的終結(jié)，”這位退休鐵路管理人員周日在新南威爾士的家中說(shuō)道。“挺悲傷的，因?yàn)槲腋杏X(jué)我還能繼續(xù)。”

The value of his contributions is hard to overstate.

要說(shuō)他所做貢獻(xiàn)的價(jià)值有多么大都不為過(guò)。

The Red Cross estimates that around 17 percent of Australian women who become pregnant need Anti-D injections to keep their babies healthy, and the injections can be made only from donated plasma, which, in Australia, comes from what officials describe as “a tiny pool” of around 160 donors who have the special antibody in their blood.

紅十字會(huì)估計(jì)，澳大利亞大約有17%的孕婦需要注射抗-D才能維持嬰兒健康，而注射劑只能從捐獻(xiàn)的血漿中制得。在澳大利亞，官員稱(chēng)他們只有來(lái)自160位血液含特殊抗體的人獻(xiàn)出的“少量”血漿儲(chǔ)備。

Without the injections, babies with certain blood types that are different from their mothers’ can develop hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn, a potentially fatal condition. Officials estimated that as of last month, Mr. Harrison’s blood had helped more than 2.4 million babies.

如果沒(méi)有注射劑，與母親血型不同的某些血型的胎兒或新生兒會(huì)患上溶血病，這是一種可能會(huì)致命的疾病。官員估計(jì)，截至上個(gè)月，哈里森的血液幫助了超過(guò)240萬(wàn)嬰兒。

“I cry just thinking about it,” Robyn Barlow, the program coordinator who recruited Mr. Harrison, told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“光是想想這件事，我都會(huì)流淚，”把哈里森招進(jìn)抗-D項(xiàng)目的項(xiàng)目主管羅賓·巴洛(Robyn Barlow)告訴《悉尼先驅(qū)晨報(bào)》(The Sydney Morning Herald)。

Mr. Harrison had been donating blood for more than a decade when researchers found him in the 1960s and asked him to become the first donor in what would eventually come to be known as the Anti-D program.

在1960年被研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)、并被邀請(qǐng)成為后來(lái)人們所熟知的“抗-D項(xiàng)目”首位捐獻(xiàn)者之前，哈里森已經(jīng)獻(xiàn)了十多年的血。

His blood was exactly what they were looking for. His body naturally produces the antibody that prevents the hemolytic disease. Mr. Harrison said he was still not sure exactly why, but believes it might have something to do with the blood he received as a teenager.

他的血液正是他們所要找的。他的身體會(huì)自然產(chǎn)生預(yù)防溶血病的抗體。哈里森表示他還是不確定這是為什么，但他相信這與他少年時(shí)接受別人獻(xiàn)的血液有關(guān)。

“The Red Cross and Australia can never thank a man like James enough,” said Jemma Falkenmire, a spokeswoman for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. “It’s unlikely we will ever have another blood donor willing to make this commitment.”

“對(duì)詹姆斯這樣的人，紅十字會(huì)和澳大利亞是滿(mǎn)懷感激的，”澳大利亞紅十字會(huì)血液中心的女發(fā)言人杰瑪·?？嗣谞?Jemma Falkenmire)說(shuō)。“今后很難再找到如此全心奉獻(xiàn)的捐獻(xiàn)者了。”

Mr. Harrison has been widely praised and has received the Medal of the Order of Australia for his longtime support of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service and the Anti-D program. Ms. Falkenmire said researchers were even working on what they have called a “James in a Jar project,” with the goal of synthetically creating a mixture of antibodies that matches what Mr. Harrison produces naturally.

因?yàn)閷?duì)澳大利亞紅十字會(huì)血液中心和抗-D項(xiàng)目的長(zhǎng)期支持，哈里森得到了廣泛贊譽(yù)，還獲得了澳大利亞勛章。?？嗣谞柋硎?，研究人員甚至還在研究一個(gè)被他們稱(chēng)為“罐裝詹姆斯”(James in a Jar)的項(xiàng)目，目的是合成一種與哈里森自然產(chǎn)生的抗體相吻合的混合抗體。

According to Ms. Falkenmire, medical professionals are able to stimulate production of the antibody in donors, but the process can lead to a flulike reaction. Complicating matters, she said, not every potential donor — even those with the right blood type — are able to create the antibody as Mr. Harrison can.

據(jù)?？嗣谞柗Q(chēng)，醫(yī)學(xué)專(zhuān)業(yè)人士可以在獻(xiàn)血者的體內(nèi)刺激這種抗體的產(chǎn)生，但這一過(guò)程可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致一種類(lèi)似流感的反應(yīng)。她說(shuō)，令事情更加復(fù)雜的是，即便這些捐獻(xiàn)者血型合適，也并非每個(gè)潛在的獻(xiàn)血者都能像哈里森一樣產(chǎn)生抗體。

On Sunday, Mr. Harrison said he had enjoyed meeting the mothers, nurses and others who had gone out of their way over the years to find and thank him.

周日，哈里森表示，他很高興能見(jiàn)到這些母親、護(hù)士和這么多年來(lái)費(fèi)了很大的勁來(lái)尋找并感謝他的其他人。

Even his daughter, Tracey Mellowship, was one of those to benefit from his blood.

就連他的女兒特雷西·馬洛西普(Tracey Mellowship)也是他血液的受益者之一。

“Thank you dad for giving me the chance to have two healthy children — your grandchildren,” Ms. Mellowship wrote in a comment on a Facebook post about her father.

“爸爸，感謝你給了我機(jī)會(huì)讓我擁有兩個(gè)健康的孩子——你的外孫，”在Facebook上一則關(guān)于她父親的帖子里，馬洛西普在評(píng)論中寫(xiě)道。

Mr. Harrison deflected most of the praise with humor and humility.

哈里森用幽默和謙遜來(lái)回應(yīng)這些贊揚(yáng)。

“Blame me for the increase in population,” he said.

“人口增長(zhǎng)都得怪我，”他說(shuō)。

As for how he processes the idea that he has saved millions of babies, he said: “Saving one baby is good. Saving two million is hard to get your head around, but if they claim that’s what it is, I’m glad to have done it.”

至于如何看待拯救了數(shù)百萬(wàn)嬰兒性命這個(gè)說(shuō)法，他說(shuō)：“拯救一個(gè)嬰兒是很好的。拯救了兩百萬(wàn)個(gè)就不太好理解了，但如果他們說(shuō)就是這樣，我很高興我這么做了。”