The Race to Save It: Testicular Torsion Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe testicular torsion, when the cord carrying blood to a testicle twists. The pain came at night, mid-practice, after a knock at hurling, a deadlift, a winter sea swim or a night out, and was blamed on a groin pull, a stomach bug, a hernia or an infection treated with antibiotics. The writers range from teenage athletes and university students to a truck driver who kept driving through western Pennsylvania and a 52-year-old told it was a teenager's problem. Parents describe an autistic son who could not say where it hurt, a two-year-old screaming at dawn and a newborn with a hard swelling, while a school nurse, a family doctor, a paramedic, a triage nurse and a support worker write from the other side. Distance shapes many accounts: a flight out from a remote mine site, a ferry from a small island to Cebu, three clinics in one day in Nairobi, a queue of sixty at a Johannesburg state hospital. Writers describe emergency surgery, an attempt to turn it by hand, a preventive operation for a younger brother, and a prosthesis chosen months later. Some testicles were saved and some were lost, and several writers describe lasting pain, fear of it happening again, a year of insurance paperwork, or feelings resurfacing decades later.

Who it's for

For teenagers, men and the parents of young children, and for the partners, coaches, teachers and nurses who may be the first to notice that something is wrong.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 231 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.