Bakersfield, CA – The Osteopathic Medical Board of California (OMBC) and the Attorney General’s office have ordered Bakersfield OB/GYN Hans Chunghan Yu D.O. to cease practice effective immediately after the doctor failed a Board-mandated competency exam. Consumer Watchdog said Dr. Yu’s patients should know they will be assigned a new doctor but may also seek their own replacement.
The OMBC placed Dr. Yu on probation in June of 2025 for gross negligence and repeated negligent acts against two babies and one mother in his care. As part of his probationary requirements, Dr. Yu was tasked with passing a competency exam to demonstrate his medical knowledge and skills. In December, Dr. Yu failed his competency exam. In response, the Osteopathic Medical Board of California issued a cease practice order effective January 2, 2026.
As part of the cease practice order, Dr. Yu is no longer allowed to practice medicine until he passes the competency exam. He has two more opportunities to take the exam.
As part of an agreement with his licensing board, Dr. Yu has been required to transfer many of his patients to other local OB/GYNs. He has also come to an agreement with another local OB/GYN to cover some of Dr. Yu’s patients in Dr. Yu’s office.
Consumer Watchdog’s work with families who lost loved ones to maternal negligence in Bakersfield spurred multiple families to come forward and report deaths and long-term harm while in Dr. Yu’s care. No disciplinary action was taken on the complaints linked to the first round of families who filed complaints. When another group of families filed complaints, the Osteopathic Medical Board filed an accusation against Dr. Yu and, after a six-day hearing before an Administrative Law judge, Dr. Yu was placed on probation and required to take a competency exam.
Consumer Watchdog worked directly with one of the mothers, Susanna Talamantes, to support the filing of her daughter’s death complaint. According to the board document, Susanna’s daughter Laylianna died the same day that she had a regular office visit with Dr. Yu. Laylianna’s death complaint is one of the three complaints that are responsible for the accusation brought against Dr. Yu’s license.
According to the complaint, Susanna’s pregnancy was high-risk because of her history of very high blood pressure. At an office visit just before her due date, Dr. Yu advised Susanna not to take her blood pressure medication before her next office visit so he could rush her into an emergency C-section. Susanna followed the doctor’s advice and appeared for her next office visit two weeks later without having taken blood pressure medication. According to the board document, Dr. Yu was aware her blood pressure was very high but told Susanna to meet him at the hospital later that day. Had Dr. Yu called an ambulance and sent Susanna to the hospital right away, her baby girl would have survived.
“Every single day, I struggle with the profound pain of losing my baby. This heartbreak doesn’t just weigh on me; it casts a shadow over my children as well,” shared Susana Talamantes. “Each day, my daughter asks me where her little sister is, and each question feels like a dagger to my heart.”
You can read more about Susanna’s daughter Laylianna’s story here.
You can find Dr. Yu’s enforcement accusation here. You can find Dr. Yu’s cease practice order here.
Consumer Watchdog worked directly with the family of another of Dr. Yu’s patients, Tracy Dominguez and Xavier De Leon, to support their death complaints filed on behalf of Demi Dominguez and her baby, Malakhi De Leon. The Osteopathic Medical Board investigated Demi’s complaint and found that her death was determined to be a simple departure from the standard of care which meant no discipline for Dr. Yu. Baby Malakhi’s death complaint was left with no review for three years and was closed.
“Receiving the news that Demi’s death complaint was closed with no discipline felt like I had lost my daughter all over again,” stated Tracy Dominguez. “I realized that I was not the only mother who had lost her daughter to this doctor. This motivated me to continue to advocate in my community along with Consumer Watchdog.”
Selena Alvarez was also a patient of Dr. Yu’s while pregnant with her daughter Anayeli. Everything seemed fine when Selena had her first OBGYN appointment at 10 weeks. But she quickly began to feel something was wrong – she was spotting blood and felt pain on her side. Worried, she brought her concerns to Dr. Yu, but he downplayed her symptoms. She was sent home with no advice. Frightened and needing answers, Selena went to the local ER for help. But the local ER doctors sent her back to Dr. Yu. Over two months, Selena’s condition grew worse to the point that she could not eat or sit up. Yet the only time her provider ran labs or performed an ultrasound for Selena was at her first appointment. Multiple visits to the OB and the hospital ended the same way – with no treatment and no answers. Selena went into premature labor. Her daughter Anayeli was born at barely a pound. After fighting for her life for seven months, Anayeli survived but she will never be able to walk, she has a feeding tube, and she will need 24/7 care for the rest of her life.
You can read more about Anayeli here.
“This was a five-year effort to work with families to encourage them to come forward, file death and lifelong harm complaints, and continue to work with us to try to move these complaints through a complicated enforcement process,” stated Michele Monserratt-Ramos, Kathy Olsen Patient Advocate at Consumer Watchdog. “This action taken by the Attorney General’s Office and the Osteopathic Medical Board was fueled by a people powered campaign for justice. This latest disciplinary action would not have occurred without the work of families across Bakersfield who filed complaints, participated in medical board meetings, and testified before the legislature.”
Consumer Watchdog’s volunteer team of advocates took extraordinary actions to move the Osteopathic Medical Board to take disciplinary action against this physician’s license.
