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The Golden Arm · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
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  Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: In Greek mythology, the fall of Icarus represents the dangers
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  Speaker 1: of overconfidence, also known as hubris. As the legend goes,
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  Speaker 1: Icarus and his father were imprisoned on the island of Crete.
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  Speaker 1: In an attempt to escape, they built two sets of
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  Speaker 1: wax wings, which would allow them to fly off the
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  Speaker 1: island towards freedom. At first, their journey was going smoothly,
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  Speaker 1: but Icarus got cocky. He rose higher and higher into
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  Speaker 1: the sky, flying so close to the sun that his
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  Speaker 1: wings melted. He fell into the ocean and drowned, a
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  Speaker 1: victim of his own hubris. The lesson is clear, overconfidence
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  Speaker 1: can lead to disaster. Unfortunately, it seems that Alexander Bogdanov,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes called the Icarus of hematology, did not get the memo.
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  Speaker 1: Alexander was born in Russia in eighteen seventy three. He
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  Speaker 1: was prolific at well, almost everything. Actually, he was an
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  Speaker 1: ardent socialist who rose through Russia's political ranks. He was
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  Speaker 1: a science fiction writer who penned tales about utopian societies.
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  Speaker 1: He was a poet, a philosopher, and a teacher. As
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  Speaker 1: if all of that wasn't enough, he was also a physician.
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  Speaker 1: During World War One, Alexander served as a doctor in
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  Speaker 1: the Russian Army. Much of his job involved giving blood
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  Speaker 1: transfusions to wounded soldiers. Now, it's important to point out
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  Speaker 1: that at this point in history, hematology or the science
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  Speaker 1: of blood, was fairly new. Scientists had just recently figured
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  Speaker 1: out about blood types. You've probably heard of these before,
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  Speaker 1: But to put a simple every human's blood falls into
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  Speaker 1: certain categories. We label these with letters AB and O
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  Speaker 1: and either a positive or a negative sign. Knowing a
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  Speaker 1: person's blood type is integral to performing a safe and
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  Speaker 1: effective transfusion. Alexander got a lot of practice doing transfusions
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  Speaker 1: during World War One. When he returned home after the war,
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  Speaker 1: he continued studying hematology, and he came up with some
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  Speaker 1: ideas that were a bit well out there. You see,
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  Speaker 1: Alexander believe that blood transfusions might be the key to immortality,
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  Speaker 1: or at least they might be able to reverse aging.
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  Speaker 1: This was a particular interest to Alexander because in the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen twenties he was around fifty years old. He was
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  Speaker 1: going through all the normal things that fifty year olds do.
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  Speaker 1: His hair was thinning, his vision was getting worse, and
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  Speaker 1: he didn't quite feel as spry and energetic as he
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  Speaker 1: did in decades past. He wanted to get back some
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  Speaker 1: of his youthful spirit, and so he figured why not
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  Speaker 1: do an experiment on himself. He managed to get eleven
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  Speaker 1: of his younger students to voluntarily donate blood to him.
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  Speaker 1: Then he transfused these donations into his own body, essentially
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  Speaker 1: trying to replace his quote unquote older blood with newer blood.
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  Speaker 1: And just to be clear, nobody had ever really done
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  Speaker 1: this before. Alexander was taking a huge risk assuming that
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  Speaker 1: transfusing pints upon pints of blood wouldn't have any adverse effects,
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  Speaker 1: and at first it didn't. Alexander actually thought that his
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  Speaker 1: weird experiment was working. He reported that his hair was
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  Speaker 1: coming back and thicker, his eyesight seemed to be improving,
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  Speaker 1: and he felt happier and more energetic than he had
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  Speaker 1: in years now. Clearly Alexander was not considering the placebo effect.
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  Speaker 1: These supposed changes weren't quantifiable, they were just self reported. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: he was totally convinced, and so were many of his
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  Speaker 1: friends and students. They told him the blood transfusions made
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  Speaker 1: him look ten years younger. So Alexander kept up with
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  Speaker 1: this vampiric routine, filling his veins with the blood of
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  Speaker 1: younger men. You might say that he was wearing wax
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  Speaker 1: wings and flying dangerously close to the sun. In April
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  Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty eight, Alexander's hubris became his downfall. He
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  Speaker 1: obtained a blood sample from a student and transfused it
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  Speaker 1: into his own body. Little did he know that student
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  Speaker 1: had malaria. Alexander had accidentally infected himself with one of
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  Speaker 1: the most dangerous diseases in the world. The student who
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  Speaker 1: gave the blood sample survived, but Alexander did not. He
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  Speaker 1: passed away that same month, going down in history as
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  Speaker 1: the Icarus of hematology. It was a tragic ending for
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  Speaker 1: a truly impressive man, but at least he taught us
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  Speaker 1: all a lesson. Aging is inevitable, so you might as
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  Speaker 1: well embrace that bald spot every superhero has an origin
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  Speaker 1: story right. Spider Man got his powers when he was
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  Speaker 1: bitten by a radioactive arachnid. The Hulk's transformation was triggered
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  Speaker 1: by gamma rays, and the Flash gained super speed after
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  Speaker 1: being struck by lightning. When it comes to strange beginnings, though,
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  Speaker 1: James Harrison is different, that's because he's not a storybook character.
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  Speaker 1: He's a real man who's credited with saving over two
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  Speaker 1: point four million lives, and he got his superpower when
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  Speaker 1: he was just fourteen years old. At the time, it
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  Speaker 1: was nineteen fifty one and James had just fallen ill
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  Speaker 1: with a severe respiratory condition. He was so sick that
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  Speaker 1: his parents rushed him to the hospital, where he underwent
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  Speaker 1: major chest surgery. He had to have one of his
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  Speaker 1: lungs completely removed to make it through the operation, James
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  Speaker 1: received multiple blood transfusions, totally about two gallons. After three
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  Speaker 1: months of recovery, James was okay, but he never forgot
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  Speaker 1: his near death experience. He knew that without those blood
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  Speaker 1: transfusions he wouldn't have survived, and he wanted to pay
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  Speaker 1: it forward. As soon as he turned eighteen, he approached
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  Speaker 1: the Australian Red Cross Blood Service and asked to make
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  Speaker 1: a donation. This was a big deal for James. Even
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  Speaker 1: after the surgery that he'd been through, he was scared
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  Speaker 1: of needles. He looked the other direction as the nurse
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  Speaker 1: stuck the sharp tip into his vein. He kept his
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  Speaker 1: eyes averted until a full pint of his blood had
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  Speaker 1: dripped into the donation bag and the nurse replaced the
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  Speaker 1: needle with a band aid. Shortly after, the Australian Red
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  Speaker 1: Cross Blood Service tested James's blood. This was standard procedure
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  Speaker 1: to make sure that the donation was safe to be
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  Speaker 1: given to a patient. But when they looked at James's blood,
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  Speaker 1: they realized something incredible. It was full of rare antibodies
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  Speaker 1: known as reesus d immune globulin or anti D. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: this is where it gets a little complicated, so just
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  Speaker 1: stick with me here. You know how, when we talk
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  Speaker 1: about blood types, we say that someone is positive or negative.
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  Speaker 1: What we're really saying is that someone's blood either does
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  Speaker 1: or does not contain a protein called reesus. Our blood
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  Speaker 1: type is determined before we're even born. Now, when a
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  Speaker 1: person with Reese's negative blood is pregnant, the fetus might
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  Speaker 1: have the same blood type. In that case, everything is fine. However,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the fetus can develop reesu's positive blood. This is
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  Speaker 1: called reesis incompatibility. When it happens, the pregnant person's body
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  Speaker 1: can have an immune reaction that creates the antibodies known
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  Speaker 1: as anti D. These targets and attack the fetus's blood cells,
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  Speaker 1: which can lead to birth effects or even miscarriage. For
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  Speaker 1: most of human history, doctors didn't have any way to
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  Speaker 1: treat reesus incompatibility. Tens of thousands of babies died from
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  Speaker 1: the disorder every year, and then in the early nineteen sixties,
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  Speaker 1: researchers learned that anti D can be used to create
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  Speaker 1: a vaccine. It's kind of like how the flu shot works.
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  Speaker 1: Scientists can take the antibody, alter it slightly and then
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  Speaker 1: inject it into the pregnant person's body, and then this
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  Speaker 1: stops the blood cells from attacking their babies. It's a
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  Speaker 1: great solution. The problem is the only way to get
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  Speaker 1: anti D is through blood donors and it's incredibly rare,
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  Speaker 1: and that's where James Harrison comes in. James is one
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  Speaker 1: of an estimated fifty people in Australia whose blood contains
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  Speaker 1: anti D, and he has it in remarkable levels, like
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  Speaker 1: his body is just overflowing with the stuff. It's believed
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  Speaker 1: that during his lung surgery, James received a transfusion of
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  Speaker 1: blood that was incompatible with his own, leading his body
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  Speaker 1: to start producing anti d in record amounts. It's like
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  Speaker 1: a superhero origin story. A medical mistake gave a man
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  Speaker 1: life saving powers. Beginning at eighteen years old, James donated
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  Speaker 1: blood or plasma once a week. He sat down and
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  Speaker 1: turned his eyes away from the needle one one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and seventy three times. He became known as the Man
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  Speaker 1: with a Golden Arm. James retired from giving blood in
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  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, at eighty one years old. Doctors estimate that
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  Speaker 1: over the course of his sixty three year career, he
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  Speaker 1: saved the lives of at least two point four million children.
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  Speaker 1: And if that isn't heroic, I don't know what is.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's Guided to you were of
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time,
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  Speaker 1: stay curious.