A Virginia hospital is facing serious allegations in a lawsuit that claims it allowed a doctor to perform unnecessary surgeries to boost profits. According to the lawsuit, the doctor performed procedures such as C-sections and hysterectomies without obtaining proper consent from patients.

The lawsuit, filed by more than 500 women in Virginia Circuit Court, targets Chesapeake Regional Medical Center (CRMC), where former gynecologist Javaid Perwaiz practiced. The legal complaint highlights that the need for intensive neonatal care for babies delivered prematurely was so frequent that CRMC neonatologists even coined the term “Perwaiz special” for these situations.

The complaint further alleges that Perwaiz routinely scheduled medically unnecessary early inductions to suit his own convenience. It was reportedly an “open secret” within the CRMC Labor and Delivery Unit, where Perwaiz allegedly hastened scheduling of surgeries, including sterilizations, to minimize the chances of patients reconsidering their decisions.

The lawsuit involves 510 patients who claim they were subjected to operations by Perwaiz. They have named several executives as defendants, accusing them of failing to stop the misconduct. Perwaiz is currently serving a 59-year prison sentence after being convicted of Medicaid fraud related to these unnecessary surgeries by the U.S. Justice Department.

In January 2025, CRMC was indicted on charges of health care fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, linked to Perwaiz’s actions and a fraudulent billing scheme. Prosecutors have connected these charges directly to the former doctor.

Perwaiz’s alleged misconduct, described as “unnecessary and medically unjustified obstetrics and gynecology procedures,” reportedly occurred from January 2010 to November 2019. Both the lawsuit and the Justice Department’s indictment detail numerous accusations, many of which are disturbingly similar in nature.

“In January 2014, Perwaiz altered a consent form after a patient was under anesthesia so that he could perform a more invasive surgery,” the civil complaint says. “While the January 2014 patient agreed to an abdominal hysterectomy (a removal of the uterus and cervix through an incision in the abdomen), Perwaiz also performed a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries), which the patient stated before surgery she did not want.”

In November 2014, a patient allegedly reported to CRMC that Perwaiz had performed a hysterectomy on her for a purportedly “pre-cancerous lesion,” but she later learned the lesion will still present after the surgery.

CRMC medical records reflect that another patient told a nurse she believed she was having surgery to address an enlarged right ovary, but Perwaiz instead performed a hysterectomy on the patient and left her ovaries intact, according to the civil complaint.

A woman who received medical treatment from Perwaiz at CRMC from around 2009 to 2017 alleges that Perwaiz performed an “untimely, unnecessary and uninformed” C-section without her consent, which left the woman suffering from “life-threatening complications” after the delivery of her baby “due to scar tissue,” the complaint says. Perwaiz also allegedly performed multiple cystectomies on her without consent.

Another patient allegedly woke up to a shocking 4-inch scar after a laparoscopic surgery to remove “purported adhesions.”

In the DOJ indictment, prosecutors describe how one woman sued Perwaiz in 2014 after he “tricked her into having surgery by falsely telling her cancer was imminent.” Perwaiz allegedly converted her surgery to an abdominal hysterectomy without her consent and included false statements in her medical records to cover it up, the DOJ said.

Surgical nurses and staff tried speaking up about the surgeries, including one who wrote in a consent form, “I feel as though we performed an assault on the patient if she truly did not want to have her ovaries removed. This just really bothers me.”

Federal prosecutors said in the CRMC indictment that Perwaiz was known for buying “lavish gifts for friends, nurses, anesthesiologists and others” who assisted with his practice.

“From 2012 to 2019, his gifts also included a $200 gift card to a post-surgery nurse manager, a $200 check to a L&D nurse, a $500 check to his preferred surgical assistant, a $500 check to his preferred scrub technician, a $500 check to a perioperative nurse, and paying over $2,000 to fund the retirement party of a L&D nurse,” the DOJ noted.

The plaintiffs in the civil suit are seeking $10 million each from CRMC. The medical center did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment on Thursday.