Frederick M. Brown/Associated Press
- Yue "Emily" Yu, a California doctor, is facing charges for trying to poison her husband.
- Yu is now also facing a lawsuit for botching a patient's surgery.
- The lawsuit accuses Yu of negligence.
A California doctor accused of trying to poison her husband with Drano is now facing a lawsuit for botching a cancer patient's surgery and leaving them with inadequate care.
A former patient of Yue "Emily" Yu, Stanley Loran Keller, filed a lawsuit against her in Orange County, California in October, according to court documents. The lawsuit accuses Yu of negligence during a skin cancer treatment procedure performed on Keller known as Moh's surgery in July 2022.
Moh's surgery is a skin cancer treatment that involves cutting away thin layers of skin and testing them for signs of cancer until there are no signs of cancer left, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The lawsuit says Yu did not perform the surgery properly, failed to provide Keller with proper follow-up care, and did not recommend Keller for appropriate consultation and treatment.
Keller suffered from a wound infection, delay in the diagnosis and treatment of his infection, pain and suffering, financial loss, and other damages as a result of Yu's negligence, the document states.
The next hearing in the lawsuit is scheduled for October 2024.
Yu is also facing felony charges of poisoning and domestic violence stemming from accusations that she tried to poison her husband last year.
Yu's husband, Jack Chen, first accused her of trying to poison him with Drano on three separate occasions in a request for a restraining order filed in August 2022 in the Orange County Superior Court.
The Irvine Police Department arrested Yu that same month and said in a press release that she was released a day later after posting a $30,000 bail.
In April, a grand jury indicted Yu on four felony charges related to the accusations that she attempted to poison her husband, including three poisoning charges and one count of domestic violence, court records show.
David E. Wohl, a criminal attorney for Yu, previously told Insider that she "vehemently and unequivocally denies ever attempting to poison her husband or anyone else."
Chen said in court documents that he first started to notice something was off when he realized there was a "chemical taste" in his lemonade, Insider previously reported.
Chen, a radiologist, went to a doctor after he started developing symptoms and learned he had two stomach ulcers, gastritis, and esophagitis, according to court documents.
"Based upon the diagnosis and my suspicions about the chemical taste, I put cameras in our kitchen," Chen's request for a restraining order said. "I obtained footage of Emily poisoning me on three occasions."
On December 13, a judge granted a second restraining order request from Chen to bar Yu from having access to the couple's two children, according to court documents. The order says Yu must stay at least 100 yards away from her children except for court-ordered contact visits.
Yu is expected back in court in February for a pretrial hearing related to the poisoning charges before her trial starts on February 27.
Business Insider could not identify an attorney representing Yu in the civil case. Mission Heritage Medical Group, the clinic where Yu worked that is named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider.