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Good blood : a doctor, a donor, and the incredible breakthrough that saved millions of babies / Julian Guthrie.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Abrams Press, 2020Copyright date: ©2020Description: 246 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 1419743317
  • 9781419743313
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
The making of a superhero -- The blood detective -- A home at the bank -- Life is a mystery -- The hobby of happiness -- The ferrets sneezed! -- The downside of a miracle -- Welcome to Sing Sing -- Red-blooded James -- The trials of prison -- A daring delivery -- A revolution in medicine -- Lights! Camera! Action! -- The first ladies -- "The switch of a light" -- A difficult dry spell -- A showstopping performance -- One of their own -- The mother of invention -- Golden arm, broken heart -- Peace in azaleas -- The lessons of a lifetime -- The infinite lifeline -- A war still being waged -- Epilogue: A war still being waged.
Summary: "In 1951 in Sydney, Australia, a fourteen-year-old boy named James Harrison was near death when he received a transfusion of blood that saved his life. A few years later, and half a world away, a shy young doctor at Columbia University realized he was more comfortable in the lab than in the examination room. Neither could have imagined how their paths would cross, or how they would change the world. In Good Blood, bestselling writer Julian Guthrie tells the gripping tale of the race to cure a horrible blood disease known as Rh disease that stalked families and caused a mother's immune system to attack her own unborn child. The story is anchored by two very different men on two continents: Dr. John Gorman in New York, who would land on a brilliant yet contrarian idea, and an unassuming Australian whose almost magical blood--and his unyielding devotion to donating it--would save millions of lives. Good Blood takes us from Australia to America, from research laboratories to hospitals, and even into Sing Sing prison, where experimental blood trials were held. It is a tale of discovery and invention, the progress and pitfalls of medicine, and the everyday heroics that fundamentally changed the health of women and babies" -- Amazon.com.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 618.3261 G984 Available 33111010407761
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

When James Harrison was a 14 year old boy in Australia in the 1950s, he had emergency surgery and received a transfusion, which saved his life. Even though he hated needles, James felt a debt to the unknown strangers who'd given him such a gift and vowed to return the favor. Little did he know how much he would do.
Everyone's blood has an Rh factor, positive or negative. But during pregnancy, if a mother's Rh factor is not matched by the baby's, her immune system can mistake the baby for a foreign body and attack it. The disease is termed Rh Sensitization and can be fatal to the child before or after birth and has caused immeasurable pain and millions of deaths.
In Good Blood, bestselling writer Julian Guthrie tells the gripping story of the race for a cure, led by a pioneering doctor who had lost her own baby to the disease, and a pair of researchers at Columbia University, who theorized that the answer might be found in an antibody. This set off a globespanning hunt for a person with the right blood, who turned out to be James Harrison. So for sixty years, James has given his blood--1,175 donations--and helped save the lives of 2.4 million babies. Based on extensive interviews with James, Dr. John Gorman, who helped find the cure, and others, Good Blood is a fascinating story of medical breakthroughs and the power of human generosity.

"In 1951 in Sydney, Australia, a fourteen-year-old boy named James Harrison was near death when he received a transfusion of blood that saved his life. A few years later, and half a world away, a shy young doctor at Columbia University realized he was more comfortable in the lab than in the examination room. Neither could have imagined how their paths would cross, or how they would change the world. In Good Blood, bestselling writer Julian Guthrie tells the gripping tale of the race to cure a horrible blood disease known as Rh disease that stalked families and caused a mother's immune system to attack her own unborn child. The story is anchored by two very different men on two continents: Dr. John Gorman in New York, who would land on a brilliant yet contrarian idea, and an unassuming Australian whose almost magical blood--and his unyielding devotion to donating it--would save millions of lives. Good Blood takes us from Australia to America, from research laboratories to hospitals, and even into Sing Sing prison, where experimental blood trials were held. It is a tale of discovery and invention, the progress and pitfalls of medicine, and the everyday heroics that fundamentally changed the health of women and babies" -- Amazon.com.

The making of a superhero -- The blood detective -- A home at the bank -- Life is a mystery -- The hobby of happiness -- The ferrets sneezed! -- The downside of a miracle -- Welcome to Sing Sing -- Red-blooded James -- The trials of prison -- A daring delivery -- A revolution in medicine -- Lights! Camera! Action! -- The first ladies -- "The switch of a light" -- A difficult dry spell -- A showstopping performance -- One of their own -- The mother of invention -- Golden arm, broken heart -- Peace in azaleas -- The lessons of a lifetime -- The infinite lifeline -- A war still being waged -- Epilogue: A war still being waged.

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