Don’t Fall Victim to Avocado Hand
Yummy though they may be, avocados — and other sliceable foods — could result in bodily injuries.
By Ray Vann
What’s more important to you: The food you eat or the finger(s) on your hand? (Art: Evan Sklar)
Each year, thousands of people are being hospitalized because of an innocent looking green menace lurking within our kitchens. Everyone from the ordinary Joe getting ready for some Monday Night Football watching to the rich and famous, like Meryl Streep and Joy Behar, have fallen victim to this dangerous threat.
And, doctors say the number of victims is only expected to rise in the years to come.
What is the culprit? It’s none other than the seemingly wholesome, extremely tasty avocado fruit.
And the injury? It’s known colloquially within the medical field as “avocado hand.”
Avocado hand is a risk that anyone who is planning to eat an avocado must face in order to release the fruit’s meaty innards. It can happen while slicing the meat out of the skin, or when trying to pry the pit loose from the grip of the meat itself.
Dr. Jeffrey Ellstein, the former President of The New York Society for Surgery of the Hand as well as a practicing orthopedic surgeon with more than 35 years of experience in the field, has seen many an avocado hand injury throughout his career.
“In general, cooking and kitchen related injuries are rather common, but as avocados have become more popular, we’ve seen an increased number of injuries related to the preparation of avocados, both with professionals and in the home,” Dr. Ellstein told OK Whatever.
“You can have a hand injury by cutting through the skin of the avocado, or you can end up injured by trying to remove that large pit and stabbing yourself while you’re holding half of the avocado.”
Avocado hand injuries can vary from something as simple as a small puncture wound to severe lacerations that can cause tendon or nerve damage. In some cases, these injuries can lead to a loss of functionality in one’s hand and might require months of therapy to heal and regain proper use.
Bent on learning more about the damage preparing a bowl of guacamole might cause, the Irish Medical Journal looked at the case of a 32-year-old woman who was recently admitted to an emergency room for an avocado hand injury. Complete with some truly shocking photographs, the doctors described how “the knife was still impaled through [the] patient’s finger as well as the avocado” upon arrival at the hospital.
In this patient’s case, she was given antibiotics and a tetanus shot, and the severed nerve in her finger was successfully repaired through surgery, allowing her to regain full use of it. But not everyone is so lucky, and for some, a severed tendon can mean permanent damage.
Though it’s an odd culinary catastrophe, avocado hand injuries are a relatively routine thing to see in hospitals and doctors’ offices.
Dr. Ellstein said he might not see an avocado-hand patient for a month or two, and then he’ll see half a dozen of them at once. And, when OK Whatever first contacted the Hand Center of Long Island — where Dr. Ellstein works — a secretary told us that someone with an avocado injury had actually visited the office that day.
Simon Eccles, the secretary and former president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, told The Times that he sees as many as "four patients a week" with avocado-related injuries.
For those who might be scared off from eating avocados after reading this, Dr. Ellstein pointed out there are plenty of other ways to slice your fruit that can have much safer results. For example — and to state the obvious — you can place the avocado on a cutting board, rather than holding it in your hand when you’re cutting it.
“This way, you’re always cutting down towards the cutting board instead of [into] your hands. Then, when you’ve got that done, you can usually twist off one-half of the avocado, and instead of using a knife, you can take a spoon and use the spoon to scoop out the pit,” he said.
Ellstein also mentioned several specially made avocado slicers that have become commercially available to help cut down on the problem of avocado hand.
And, of course, avocados aren’t the only foods that one should be careful with when slicing. Ellstein has seen some severe injuries from folks cutting open bagels, separating frozen meat patties, and shucking clams as well.
So the next time you pick up a knife to prepare your meal, take a second to consider the risks you’re about to take. Your top-secret guacamole recipe might taste amazing, but not if you lose a finger while preparing it.
Ray VanN is a writer.
Evan Sklar is an artist, illustrator, and photographer straight out of Brooklyn, where he enjoys walking his dogs and complaining about the weather and public transportation.
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