The ‘Rh ladies’ of Winnipeg
In the early 1960s, Dr. Alvin Zipursky recruited four women to donate blood for research on Rh disease. This became the seed for a larger donation program under Dr. Jack Bowman, which ultimately led to a preventative treatment in Canada. The stories behind two of Winnipeg’s “Rh ladies”:
‘The most beautiful veins’
Mary Taillieu has carried eight babies in her womb but only the first, a son, came out healthy.
Her second boy, Gerry, died Nov. 11, 1956 — one day after his birth. Her third son was stillborn; then, a miscarriage. Taillieu gave birth to four daughters, who required massive blood transfusions at birth.
Rh disease stalked her children. After her eighth, she decided: no more dead babies.
And to help other women, she became one of Winnipeg’s “Rh ladies.”
“I decided to join the club,” Taillieu, 93, says from Winnipeg. “I was helping them out, because they helped me out.”
The “club” is really a program started by Zipursky in 1963. He was focused on Rh disease prevention and work was underway to create an injection for pregnant women to protect their babies.
But one ingredient required was the blood of women who had already had the disease. The same antibodies that killed their fetuses were extracted and harnessed as a prophylaxis — when given to other women, it would trick their immune systems and protect their babies.
Zipursky recruited the first four women but had already left by the time Taillieu signed up with Bowman, Zipursky’s successor at the Red Cross blood clinic.
A1968 Winnipeg Free Press article said the Rh ladies spent two to three hours lying down, as two pints of blood were drawn. The blood was then centrifuged for six minutes, a process called plasmapheresis.
As the blood cells settled at the bottom, the plasma — which contains the antibodies — floated to the top. The blood was then returned to the women, and the plasma shipped to a Toronto lab that processed the prophylaxis.
At the time, 21 women were doing this weekly. The clinic produced enough gamma globulin to supply Canada and other parts of the world, Bowman told the Free Press.
Taillieu gave blood for nearly 15 years, stopping at age 66. She proudly remembers the compliment she used to get at the clinic: “They said I had the most beautiful veins.”
‘You’d better start praying . . .’
An early memory: Eveline Bériault is maybe 5, kneeling with her family inside their Manitoba farmhouse. They are murmuring a bedtime prayer, circled around the kitchen table, when her pregnant mother stands up. Blood drip, drip, drips on the floor.
“She went upstairs and Dad followed her. He said, ‘Prayer’s over. You guys go to bed,’” Bériault recalls. She and her brother retreated to their room and listened as mayhem unfolded.
One neighbour peeked in and told them: “If you don’t want your mother to die tonight, you’d better start praying. I remember kneeling on the bed with the rosary, both of us crying.”
Bériault’s mother would stay in hospital a long time. As Bériault later learned, the baby had succumbed to Rh disease, caused by her parents’ incompatible blood types.
Their wedding on June 6, 1944 — D-Day — led to a long and happy marriage but it also produced multiple dead babies.
Their first, Raymond,was stillborn. Baby Gilbert entered and exited the world on March 2, 1948. Florentine also suffered multiple miscarriages, two of which Eveline can still remember.
Eveline and her brother, Emanuel, are the only Bériault children to survive past birth.
Not that their mother ever complained. Tall and slender, Florentine had the steely resolve of a farmer’s wife. “They were just fighting to put food on the table,” Bériault says. “There was no time for feelings.”
But Florentine was dedicated to giving back to her community, and agreed when approached to donate blood — even though the clinic was an hour away by bus.
Over time, hundreds of needles left painful scar tissue in the crook of her elbows. But Florentine continued donating every week for about a decade. She died in 1994, at 93.
“She talked about helping mothers not have to go through what she went through,” Bériault says. “I was proud of her.” Jennifer Yang
“The idea grew because Dr. Zipursky knows so many people. He is the centre, the spoke.” DR. VINOD BHUTANI CO-FOUNDER OF CONSORTIUM FOR UNIVERSAL RH DISEASE ERADICATION