Nairobi, May 5 -- "I just did not want them to cut it off."

Elias Muthoni says this quietly. He is 14 years old, and pain woke him up in the middle of the night. He does not remember the exact moment it started, only that it would not go away. He lay still, hoping it would pass. It got worse.

He was rushed to PCEA Kikuyu Hospital, where, according to the medical team, he was still within the window for the condition to be corrected. Elias had testicular torsion, a condition where the testicle twists on itself and cuts off its own blood supply. A surgeon has between six and eight hours to intervene from the moment it begins. After that, the tissue dies, and the testicle cannot be saved. The medical team told him plainly: if they could no...