James Harrison, an Australian man credited with saving 2.4 million babies through his record-breaking blood plasma donations over six decades, has died, his family says. He was 88.

"It wasn't one big heroic act. It was just a lifetime of being there and doing these small acts of good bit by bit." When he was just 14, James Harrison of New South Wales, Australia, needed to undergo lung surgery that required a series of life-saving blood transfusions.

Harrison, whose plasma contained a rare antibody, rolled up his sleeve 1,173 times from 1954 to 2018. The Australian is credited with helping 2.4 million babies and advancing scientific research.