UNDYING

This is the true story of the race to cure a blood disease known as Rh, which was responsible for the deaths of millions of babies in the womb think The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks meets Unbroken.

As a young boy, James Harrison came near death, undergoing surgery for hours. In the process, he received many transfusions from the blood of strangers. Flash forward years later, now a young man in his 20s, though terrified of needles and haunted by his own childhood health scare, James gives blood for the first time, to give something back to all those who helped him as a child.

It was this donation that led scientists in New York to discover his blood had been altered on that operating table years before from the blood of all those strangers, and there was now something very special about it. Eventually, James would give blood over 1000 times, for more than 60 years, which has helped to lead Rh becoming a largely treatable disease in the western world. He has saved the lives of millions of babies, and is today known as the "man with the golden arm."

UNDYING is a deeply emotional, personal, and inspirational journey, and the most riveting of scientific mysteries. Within this larger tale is the story of early, harrowing and milestone blood transfusions; the discovery of blood groups; and the establishment of the earliest blood banks. It takes us from Australia to New York to England to Canada, and even into Sing Sing prison, where unusual breakthrough blood trials were held using African American prisoners. The conquest of Rh disease represents one of the greatest medical breakthroughs since the discovery of penicillin and the landmark achievement is widely unknown.