‘Avocado Hand’ epidemic sends guac lovers to the ER

Whether from overspending on avocado toast or starring in its own museum, the avocado has gotten a lot of press lately. But as popular as the luscious fleshy fruit may be, it has a dark side. It could send you to the emergency room.

The danger of #AvocadoHand is spreading on social media, where users post photos and stories of accidentally stabbing themselves in the hand while trying to cut an avocado. And it’s not just an epidemic on Twitter; the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons last year called for safety-warning labels on the perilous pieces of produce.

“I see it fairly frequently,” Dr. Scott Dresden of Northwestern University’s emergency medicine department told the Chicago Tribune. “Patients try to stab the pit, the knife slips off the pit and they stab the hand. Or patients do a sort of hacking motion with the long blade of the knife into the pit, and hack into the webbing between the thumb and the forefinger instead.”

The avocado hazard has claimed some high-profile victims. Joy Behar, host of “The View,” ended up in the hospital overnight to fight an infection she contracted after an Avocado Hand incident. Acting queen Meryl Streep required hand surgery after her run-in with the treacherous pitted fruit.

How do you avoid such a fate? The California Avocado Commission recommends cutting an avocado lengthwise on a cutting board until you hit the seed, turning it by a quarter and cutting lengthwise again, twisting the halves to separate them into quarters, plucking out the seed by hand and peeling off the skin by pushing your thumb under the skin and pulling it back.