In a sweeping legal action, over 500 women have filed lawsuits against Virginia's Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, accusing the institution of facilitating unnecessary surgeries conducted by former physician Javaid Perwaiz, who is currently incarcerated.
Perwaiz, convicted of Medicaid fraud, is serving a 59-year sentence for performing unwarranted medical procedures, including hysterectomies, without patient consent.
According to The Post Millennial, the 204-page complaint filed by 510 plaintiffs seeks $10 million each, asserting that the hospital ignored "repeated reports and clear evidence" of Perwaiz's prior misconduct. Despite his history of malpractice at his own OBGYN practice, the hospital allegedly allowed him to continue performing surgeries for nearly a decade.
One of the plaintiffs, Dracena Holloway, recounted her experience to WAVY, stating, "He came off nice and secure, made me feel comfortable and then thats when things changed." Holloway, who began seeing Perwaiz in 2002, underwent over ten surgeries under his care.
Holloway described the lasting impact of these procedures, saying, "I can barely walk. Sometimes I have a lot of abdominal pain, I have chronic illnesses [and] my children have to help me out most of the time." She further revealed that Perwaiz delivered four of her children, inducing labor before 39 weeks without medical justification.
Holloway emphasized the need for accountability, asserting, "I just feel like the hospital needs to be held accountable. The doctors already locked up for it, but somebody else needs to be held accountable, which is the hospital, because they allowed him to practice there."
The plaintiffs claim that Chesapeake Regional Medical Center granted Perwaiz privileges to operate, disregarding warning signs in pursuit of financial gain. The lawsuit targets current and former executives of the hospital, including current president and CEO James Reese Jackson, and his predecessors,
Peter Francis Bastone and Wynn Lawton Dixon Jr. Perwaiz's fraudulent activities came to light in 2019 after an anonymous tip-off led to an investigation. Operating a solo practice in Chesapeake for nearly four decades, allegations against him date back to the 1980s.
In 2020, Perwaiz was found guilty on 54 of 63 charges at the conclusion of his trial. Earlier this year, a federal grand jury indicted Chesapeake Regional Medical Center on charges of healthcare fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and interference with government functions. The indictment alleges that between 2010 and 2019, the hospital received approximately $18.5 million in reimbursements for the procedures performed by the convicted physician.
As the legal proceedings unfold, questions remain about the extent of the hospital's complicity and the systemic failures that allowed such malpractice to persist unchecked.
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