CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Hundreds of women sued Chesapeake Regional Medical Center Monday, alleging the health system “enabled” former physician Javaid Perwaiz to perform unnecessary surgeries on them. The 510 plaintiffs are each seeking $10 million.
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Javaid Perwaiz is currently serving a 59-year prison sentence for Medicaid fraud after he was convicted of performing unnecessary procedures and surgeries, including hysterectomies, on women without their consent.
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Holloway is one of hundreds of former patients named as plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit filed against Chesapeake Regional Medical Center and three executives. The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Victoria Wickman and Anthony DePietro, who filed the 204-page complaint Monday. Holloway began seeing Perwaiz in 2002. She said Perwaiz performed more than 10 surgeries on her. “I can barely walk,” Holloway said. “Sometimes I have a lot of abdominal pain, I have chronic illnesses [and] my children have to help me out most of the time.” Holloway also said Perwaiz delivered four of her children, and induced labor prior to 39 weeks without a medical reason.
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The lawsuit states that executives at the hospital enabled Perwaiz to perform unnecessary procedures for nearly a decade despite “repeated reports and clear evidence” of Perwaiz’s prior misconduct in his own OBGYN practice. Perwaiz was granted privileges to operate at the hospital by Chesapeake Regional Medical Center and plaintiffs like Holloway said the hospital ignored red flags in order to cash checks at the expense of her health.
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Perwaiz ran a solo practice in Chesapeake for nearly 40 years before he was indicted for fraud in 2019 after an anonymous tip was sent to investigators. His trial concluded in November 2020, when he was found guilty on 54 of 63 charges and sentenced to serve the rest of his life in prison. The lawsuit, which includes allegations dating back to the late 1980s up until his arrest in 2019, also names three senior hospital executives: James Reese Jackson, the current president and CEO, and two of his predecessors, Peter Francis Bastone and Wynn Lawton Dixon Jr. In January, Chesapeake Regional Medical Center was charged with healthcare fraud, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and interference with government functions by a federal grand jury. The charges allege that, from 2010 to 2019, the hospital received roughly $18.5 million in reimbursements from healthcare benefit programs for surgical and obstetric procedures that Perwaiz performed at the hospital.
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“The Patients V. Perwaiz” is a 10-part docuseries that explores the FBI’s investigation into Perwaiz and the red flags that were ignored by the healthcare system during his 40-year career.