"Man from the South"

I enjoyed reading a portion of “Man from the South” by Roald Dahl. During this literary segment, a man made a bet with an American solider. The bet was whether or not the soldier could light his lighter ten times running. The man told the solider that if the soldier won the bet, he would gain the man’s Cadillac. At the end of the story, the audience understood that the Cadillac was not really the man’s car, it was his wife’s car. However, if the soldier lost, the soldier’s little finger on his left hand would be cut off with a chopping knife. Moreover, losing the bet would change the soldier’s daily routine and occupations.

The soldier’s grasp would be negatively affected, and he would lose the majority of strength in his left hand. He would not be able to achieve intrinsic plus, and he would not have deep functioning of the ulnar nerve. More specifically, the soldier’s lateral grip would be affected when he holds a cigarette. In this case, smoking would be a leisure occupation that would be greatly affected by the loss of the little finger. Based on the reading, the soldier seemed to enjoy the leisure occupation of swimming as well. If the soldier lost the bet, swimming would also be affected. His ulnar nerve would be majorly impacted and would affect the pull and strength of his swimming strokes. The soldier would need to make modifications to his daily routine in order to compensate for the loss. Also, he may need to learn new ways to engage in the occupations that he needs or wants to do. As a solider, his daily routine may include shooting guns. In this case, his grip would also be affected by the loss of his little finger, while stabilizing and holding a gun.

After reading the article, “Occupation-based Hand Therapy and the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework” by Deborah Amini, one strategy to help the soldier regain his independence for swimming would be physical agent modalities (PAMs). The outcome that this would support would be returning to functional movement by providing pain management.

As for the wife of the man betting against the solider, she had already lost some of her fingers. In fact, she only had two fingers on one of her hands. Daily occupations that would be affected by the loss of her fingers would include driving her Cadillac, washing her hair, and preparing meals. Specifically, the occupation of driving would be affected by the loss of her fingers. Equipment that would help the wife regain independence would be adaptive driving aids such as hand controls. The outcome that this IADL would address would be the modification for functional independence.