Dr. Monica Yawen Lo, MD

More details to my earlier review: My husband was Monica Lo’s patient for an ablation in 2017. During the insertion of a TEE probe, he suffered a massive esophageal injury. The medical record reflects the care team was aware of the possibility of a serious injury during the ablation. During our two-day hospital stay, and starting immediately after the procedure, Monica Lo said to us repeatedly that had she been aware that the probe insertion was difficult, she would have done the insertion herself or used a smaller sized probe. From this statement we inferred she was not involved at all with the insertion. Later, three people who were in the room when it happened (the TEE tech, the CRNA, and another staffer) testified under oath that Monica Lo was the person who did the probe insertion. Lo still says that it is “her recollection” that she did not do the probe insertion. Oddly, everyone else recollects otherwise, and apparently that was her “recollection” minutes/hours after the… procedure. The GI consultant wrote shortly after the procedure that if symptoms persisted, to consider an esophagram. Classic esophageal injury symptoms persisted all night. The next morning, when the patient could not swallow his medication, Lo texted her GI consultant asking if he had “any ideas” and describing the patient as “a sensitive guy” who needed to take a blood thinner. Remember, the GI consultant had recommended an esophagram the night before. He repeated this recommendation in response to Lo’s text. The patient, as it turned out, had a 21-cm long injury to his esophagus, and Lo called him “a sensitive guy.” After someone finally ordered a CT scan, the radiologist called Lo around 9:30 pm to discuss findings with her. The next morning she told us she had been so upset by the findings she couldn’t sleep and stayed up late playing with her young daughter. One thing she didn’t do while being unable to sleep was call us to tell us the CT result or the plan. I asked the nurse late that night about the result and was told the docs would let me know in the morning, which probably meant this was not an emergency. The patient was transferred to another hospital the next day where he underwent an emergency esophagectomy. Life short an esophagus is a lot different, and not in a good way, than our previous life. We were never told esophageal loss was a risk of this procedure. I cannot recommend a practitioner who is not honest with the patient when a medical error occurs. I have documentation supporting every detail of this account.

Monica Lo was my husband’s doctor when he was severely injured during a TEE probe insertion, suffering a 21cm-long esophageal injury. After 2 days of suffering under her care, he was finally transferred to an institution with competent physicians, where he underwent emergency surgery to remove his esophagus. That surgeon said he had never seen an injury like the one my husband suffered. Monica Lo has consistently denied any knowledge of/role in the difficult TEE probe insertion. The medical record and sworn testimony of 3 witnesses say otherwise. The witnesses say she DID the probe insertion. I do not recommend this practitioner.

Dr Lo is a wonderful doctor and seems to be an all around great person. She explains everything very well and has an excellent bedside manner. My father thought the world of her and now she is taking just as good care of my husband. I can’t say enough good about her and her staff or the Arkansas Heart Hospital.

Dr Lo was awesome! She did a cardiac workup that no other dr would. She was nice had an awesome bedside manner and actually said what all she was going to do. Best Cardiologist by far.