53-year-old singer Isobel Roberts decided to cook a healthy breakfast with avocados, but accidentally cut herself with a knife. “I thought it was just a small cut,” she says. “But I looked closer and saw the white bone of my thumb!” Isobel felt weak and called an ambulance. “When we were driving to the hospital, I apologized to the paramedics all the time. It was very funny. It’s such a healthy breakfast.”
Isobel isn’t the first victim of what’s been dubbed the “avocado hand,” knife injuries sustained while trying to remove an avocado’s pit.
It sounds like an April Fool’s joke, and the doctors are seriously concerned. These injuries sometimes require reconstructive surgery!
Recently, plastic surgeon Simon Eccles, a member of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS), said he treats about four patients with hand injuries per week. BAPRAS even offered to put warning labels on fruit.
“Few people understand how to properly handle this fruit,” Eccles said. “And celebrities also face problems: Meryl Streep injured herself in the same way in 2012 and walked with a bandage, and Jamie Oliver himself warned about the possible dangers when cooking avocados.”
Avocado is a fruit rich in healthy fats, vitamin E, fiber and minerals. More and more people are including it in their diet.
“The more we fall in love with avocados, the more doctors come with injuries,” jokes plastic surgeon consultant Paul Bagley.
If you, too, have fallen victim to the “avocado hand”, follow the instructions for safely removing the pit!