Holy Guacamole

Holy guacamole, thats
got to hurt!
No self-respecting bruncher would consider a late breakfast without a little smashed avocado on toast but for many
it comes at a high price.
Surgeons say growing numbers of amateur chefs are reporting to accident and emergency departments with what
they are calling "avocado hand"; serious stab and slash injuries that are the result of failed attempts to penetrate the
fruits hard outer casing with a sharp knife before encountering a resistant inner stone.
The British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and
Aesthetic Surgeons is calling for safety labels on the fruit to
staunch the flow of injured patients to hospitals. Many
cases involve serious nerve and tendon injuries, requiring
intricate surgery and even then some patients never
recover the full use of the hand.
Simon Eccles, secretary of the association and former
president of the plastic surgery section of the Royal Society
of Medicine, said: "People do not anticipate that the
avocados they buy can be very ripe and there is minimal
understanding of how to handle them. We dont want to put
people off the fruit but I think warning labels are an
effective way of dealing with this. It needs to be
recognisable. Perhaps we could have a cartoon picture of
an avocado with a knife, and a big red cross going through
it?"
Hard figures for "avocado hand" have not been collated but
it is a global phenomenon: Meryl Streep was photographed
with a bandaged hand in 2012 after the fruit fought back. In
New Zealand more than 300 people have sued for
compensation from avocado injuries in the past five years.
The New York Times ran an article this month headlined:
How to cut an avocado without cutting yourself after the wife of a staff member had to be treated in hospital for a
deep wound.
At Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, Mr Eccles says he treats about four patients a week with avocado
hand. Staff at St Thomas Hospital, in London, say they are well accustomed to the "post-brunch surge" on Saturdays.
Catherine Poust, 26, a PR worker, needed stitches after stabbing herself while preparing brunch for friends and
discovered she was the fourth avocado casualty at the hospital that day. "When I told people, everyone had a story to
share about a friend who had also fallen victim," she said.
When Diana Grech, 31, a PhD student at Leeds University, sliced a nerve last year, staff at Leeds General Infirmary
told her they saw at least one avocado-related injury a week. She said that she was using a technique she saw on a
cookery programme that involves cupping the avocado in one hand while piercing the stone with a knife to dislodge it.
Oscar Henson, a DJ from Bristol, has also fallen foul of the fruit. He was enjoying a picnic in France when he "took the
knife and sunk it tentatively into the stone, expecting it to lodge, but the stone was rotten so the knife slipped straight
through like butter."
Jeff Bland, executive chef at the Michelin-starred Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, said accidents arose because of poor
techniques. He advises his chefs to place the fruit flat on a surface, with a hand on top, while gently making incisions
around the stone.
David Shewring, vice-president of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand, told The Times: "Recently the health
benefits of avocado have been advocated, with an increase in their popularity and a consequent increase in related
injuries." He outlined the correct technique for de-stoning: "Wrap the avocado in a towel leaving the pip exposed.
Carefully use the edge of a heavy sharp knife to chop into the summit of the soft pip, so that it is slightly buried.
Holding the knife, so that the pip is stabilised, use a towel to twist the pip out."
Cathryn Scott, who runs a caf in Edinburgh, said avocados should come with a health warning. She was put out of
action for a week after cutting herself while attempting to slice an avocado but said the worst part of the ordeal was
that she "got absolutely no sympathy for it at all. My husband, children and colleagues just laughed and shouted
'middle-class problems'."
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/holy-guacamole-that-s-got-to-hurt-zjzvx3j7d

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Holy guacamole, thats

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