ohmidog!

A North Jersey physician has been accused of stabbing her 13-year-old  daughter with a screwdriver at least 100 times because she failed to properly wash her dog’s clothes, police and health officials said.

Dr. Sylvia S. Lee of Emerson, an allergist, faces felony charges of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Her license to practice medicine has been suspended by the state Board of Medical Examiners, according to The Record.

State officials said Dr. Lee, 58, admitted jabbing the child multiple times with a flathead screwdriver after the girl failed to wash “doggie clothes” and a “doggie towel” in the correct order.

The alleged attack occurred in Dr. Lee’s home in Emerson on July 3. Emerson police said they received a call from the Lee’s adopted daughter after she fled to a former caretaker’s house near her home, Lt. George Buono said.

“The girl was visibly upset and had some bruising and redness on her face, scrapes and small puncture wounds on different parts of her body,” Buono said.

Though the blows from the screwdriver broke the skin and caused some bleeding, the wounds weren’t deep and the child did not require hospitalization, officials said.

Dr. Lee practiced medicine at the Center for Asthma and Allergy, in offices in Wayne and in Old Bridge. Robert Conroy, an attorney who represents the practice, said Lee resigned at least a week ago.

The state Department of Children and Families was called in after the alleged assault and that the girl has been placed with another family. Dr. Lee was released on $200,000 bail.

A Bucks County, Pennsylvania, doctor kicked a guide dog out of her office, and says it was within her rights to do so.

Dr. Priya Punjabi told Phillyburbs.com that a large animal could scare or upset her patients — though the couple with the guide dog were the only ones in her Bensalem office when they arrived. The doctor also said she is afraid of dogs.

Lat week, Joseph Cichonski, 58, who is visually impaired, accompanied his wife to Punjabi’s office, where she was scheduled to receive a physical.

Cichonski said his guide dog, Hero, a golden retriever/Lab mix,  was lying calmly at his feet in the waiting room when the doctor approached and told him pets weren’t allowed in the office.

“We simply asked him to step outside,” the doctor explained later. “I have my rights and my phobias, too.”

“I told her that it’s not a pet, it’s a guide dog, but she still said I couldn’t have him in there,” Cichonski said.

Cichonski said he and Hero stepped outside the office because he didn’t want to cause a scene. His wife, who was told she wouldn’t be treated while the dog was in the office, also left.

The Cichonskis called police, who interviewed the parties involved and filed a report. Cichonski said Wednesday that he’s exploring his options.

“I’m not trying to cause a fuss,” he said. “I just want to let people know that things like this are happening and I’d like to prevent them from happening to other people with disabilities.”

Rocco Iaculla, an attorney with the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, said the doctor’s actions violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“You cannot exclude service animals except in very specific situations,” he said. “Unless the animal is out of control or not housebroken or someone nearby has a severe allergic reaction, you must permit them in any area that the public is permitted. It has to be more than someone feeling uncomfortable with an animal present.”

(Photo: Kim Weimer / Phillyburbs.com)

With evidence both anecdotal and scientific showing dogs have the potential to sniff out diabetes — or at least detect the changes that occur when a person is about to have a hypoglycemic attack — a research center in southern England is training dogs to warn diabetic owners when their blood sugar levels fall to dangerously low levels.

As this 2007 video shows, some dogs already have the skill down, but the Cancer and Bio-Detection Dogs research center in Aylesbury, based on recent evidence suggesting a dog’s hyper-sensitive nose can detect impending attacks, is now working to train 17 dogs that will be paired up with diabetic owners.

A survey last December by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast found 65 percent of 212 people with insulin-dependent diabetes reported that their pets had reacted by whining, barking, licking or some other display when they had a hypoglycemic episode, according to Reuters.

“Dogs have been trained to detect certain odors down to parts per trillion, so we are talking tiny, tiny amounts. Their world is really very different to ours,” research center Chief Executive Claire Guest said.

The center is continuing work to perfect dogs’ ability in spotting signs of cancer. Guest said having a dog in every doctor’s office would be impractical, but the research could help lead to the invention of an electronic nose that will mimic a dog’s.

“At the moment electronic noses are not as advanced as the dogs’, they are about 15 years behind. But the work that we are doing and what we are finding out will help scientists advance quickly so that they can use electronic noses to do the same thing,” she said.

Pretty amazing stuff, but I think I’d rather be diagnosed by a dog than an electronic nose. And what’s so impractical about a dog in every doctor’s office? Seems entirely practical to me, and a good way — if shelter dogs could be trained to sniff out disease — to allow everyone to live a little longer.

Besides, it would make doctors’ offices far more inviting, and give us something to do in the waiting room.