Good Blood, Julian Guthrie
Good Blood, Julian Guthrie
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Good Blood
A Doctor, a Donor, and the Incredible Breakthrough That Saved Millions of Babies

Author: Julian Guthrie

Narrator: Ann Richardson

Unabridged: 8 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/08/2020

Synopsis

A remarkable, uplifting story about one of the greatest medical breakthroughs of the 20th century.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 affliction 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 the 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.

About Julian Guthrie

Julian Guthrie is a journalist, author, and founder based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent twenty years at the San Francisco Chronicle, where she won numerous awards and had her writing nominated multiple times for the Pulitzer Prize. She is the author of four previous books, including Alpha Girls and the bestsellers The Billionaire and the Mechanic and How to Make a Spaceship.

About Ann Richardson

Ann Richardson is an award-winning narrator. With a background of drama and music prevalent in her Midwestern upbringing, she delights in narrating fiction and portraying characters with a variety of accents, including Scandinavian and Southern U.S. Being of Swedish heritage is an important facet of Ann's life, as her father was a Swedish immigrant, and she travels to Sweden every few years to spend time with family and brush up on speaking the language. In her spare time Ann is a volunteer narrator for Learning Ally (formerly Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic), and also enjoys sculpting, painting, long-distance running, and hanging out with her family in Northern California.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Deb (Readerbuzz) on November 26, 2020

News is usually bad news, and nonfiction is often more of the same. Good Blood is different: Good Blood is good news. Good Blood is the story of a doctor who came up with a solution to a terrible health issue, and the blood donor who donated the blood to solve the health issue. Together, the doctor a......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on August 30, 2020

When I married in the early 1970s I remember my fiance and I needed blood tests to check if we were Rh compatible. I knew it affected our ability to have children. That is about all I knew about Rh disease. Until reading Good Blood, I have no idea how many people were affected by the disease, how man......more

Goodreads review by Kim on September 21, 2020

What an interesting medical mystery. I had never heard about Rh disease, mainly because I don’t have children and it is handled pretty well in the United States now. But it was fascinating and terrifying to learn about, and what is even more tragic is how prevalent it still is in other countries, wh......more

Goodreads review by Glen on September 07, 2020

I won this book in a goodreads drawing. A great biography about one of the breakthrough medical discoveries of the 20 century. The RH disease was wreaking havoc on families, killing children in the womb. A pair of doctors try to find a cure, and a prodigious blood donor provides the clue. All of those......more

Goodreads review by Venky on June 08, 2020

James Christopher Harrison, an effervescent Aussie lad was all of fourteen years old, when a seemingly innocuous bug that caught him turned into a bad case of triple pneumonia. With the antibiotics failing to do their job, young Harrison’s condition worsened before it was decided that a pediatric pu......more

Quotes

“A breathless history of a miraculous treatment…Guthrie narrates her account like a novel, as her characters chat, think, brood, agonize, and ultimately triumph just as in a Hollywood movie.” Kirkus Reviews

“Guthrie vividly captures the determination and commitment of her two main subjects. This is an inspiring and heartwarming story of a medical breakthrough.” Publishers Weekly

“In a true tour de force, Julian Guthrie spans decades of intensive research amid celebrated discoveries that highlight the final successful treatment of Rh disease. Good Blood is a good read about a major medical achievement that continues to save lives throughout the world.” Jay A. Levy, MD, professor of medicine, University of California, San Francisco 

“In Good Blood, Julian Guthrie weaves a lyrical web of science, selflessness, and soul that gives hope for a united humanity. Truly a story to be savored.” Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of California, San Diego, and author of Losing the Nobel Prize

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