Man From The South
"Man From The South" by Roald Dahl tells a story about an American soldier who makes a strange bet with an South American man. If the soldier could strike his lighter successfully ten times running he would be rewarded a Cadillac, if not it would cost him his left little finger. To the soldiers knowledge his left little finger also had no purpose. He believed that he had never had to use his left little finger before, so what was the harm. Little does the soldier know that the little finger actually has a big purpose to the overall function of the hand. While the index finger, middle finger, and thumb provide all of the dexterity for your hand, the ring finger and the pinky finger provide almost all of the power.
Without his pinky finger he would lose almost fifty percent of his hands overall strength. However strength wouldn't be the only thing he would loose, he would also lose grip strength and have ulnar nerve damage. One daily occupation that might be impacted for the soldier is the ability to grip his beloved lighter to light a cigarette. Being a soldier, there are other multiple occupations that would be impacted due to amount of fitness that is require to be a soldier. Being a sailor he would also lose his ability to adjust the sail of his boat if he couldn't use proper grasping methods to keep hold of it. From the OTPF an occupational therapists role is to not only heal a body structure, but also provide consultation, psychosocial support, and education. For this aspect of the therapy process, the therapist would educate the soldier on wound care, offer advice for future depression for concern of being able to maintain active duty, and consult with the client to make sure he has a positive support system. These strategies will allow the soldier to cope with the loss of his little finger.
Losing one finger is bad enough, but losing three is almost unimaginable. With the wife only having one finger and a thumb on one hand, an occupation that would be lost would be the ability to open a door. With a knob handle you need to be able to fully grasp the handle and use grip strength to twist and pull the door open. One modification for this occupation that I would suggest would be to invest in door lever handle. These are made to be ADA compliant for handicapped users. With this specific door knob, she would use her wrist to push the lever down and be able to open the door.
I thought of the functional loss of the finger lost. I did not think about the ulnar nerve being effected also! Not all but some grip strength can be regained by strengthening the other fingers. He would have to grasp bigger objects to be able to complete some of his tasks. The levers would be a good idea for the wife. Also, many doors to public places have automatic doors now which would be very beneficial to her along with the push and pull doors many places have.
ReplyDeleteRiley, reading the story of the soldier I sort of went along with his way of thinking/attitude about it - not being that important to just lose a pinky finger. It wasn’t until doing my own research after reading this story that I realized quite how important the pinky finger has in the overall function of the hand like you said. However, something that I learned from your response is that there could also be damage caused to his ulnar nerve. I did not think about that when reflecting on what would happen if he were to lose his pinky finger. I appreciated that you used an occupation that was discussed in the story - him smoking. He was very confident in his ability to light his lighter, so much so he was willing to bet a finger on it, so that was a great occupation to choose for this soldier. He might would lose his confidence in his ability to light the lighter every time if he didn’t have his pinky to help with his grip strength or if he realized quite how much he would be losing if he were to lose his pinky. I think it was great that you included how an occupational therapist would care for this soldier in your response such as wound care, advice for future depression, and consulting about his support system.
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