Man from the South

In our class we read the short story, Man from the South, by Dr. Amini. If the soldier had lost his little finger in the bet, he would lose much of his functional ability to use power grips and securely grasp items. One activity that may be affected in his daily life could be his ability to grasp the shaft of a paddle when he rows his boat to shore from his ship. We could modify the paddle by adding a back-of-the-hand grip, which would clamp down on the dorsum of the sailor’s hand to add support and increase his grip strength while rowing. His ability to row to shore will allow for leisure time and social participation when visiting the land, he will be able to meet new people, swim, rest on the beach, and make more bets! 

https://www.creatingability.com/paddle-adaptations/

Over the years the man’s wife has had lost all but one finger and a thumb on one hand, and had an increase in responsibility to look after her husband’s compulsive betting habits; at this point in her life, she had taken everything from him to stop his betting, just to learn that he would continue even after he had taken a majority of her fingers on one hand. Over the years, the woman has had to adjust to losing fingers, one by one, which must have had a major effect on her daily occupations. One occupation might have been her ability to strike a lighter, if she smoked daily, liked to light candles, or wanted to continue to bet her husband. She could continue to do this with her thumb and one finger by putting the base of the lighter on the palm of her hand, close to her wrist, holding the lighter with her thumb, and striking it with the finger that she has available. I tested this with all four fingers and it worked!