Doctor Accused of Unnecessary Surgeries on Hundreds of Women, Leading to Massive Lawsuit
A concerning case has emerged involving a Virginia doctor accused of performing hundreds of unnecessary surgeries on women, allegedly defrauding insurance companies of up to $20 million. Dr. Javaid Perwaiz was incarcerated in 2021 following a lengthy period of alleged exploitation of vulnerable patients at his obstetrics and gynaecology practice.
According to federal investigators, Perwaiz is said to have misled patients, including hundreds of women, by fabricating imminent health dangers, such as claims of cancer or a high risk thereof, to justify invasive procedures.
A Patient’s Harrowing Experience
One of the alleged victims, Dracena Holloway, who has become a leading figure in a significant lawsuit against the healthcare organisation that permitted Perwaiz to operate, Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, began seeing the doctor as her OB-GYN in 2001 when she was just 19. Now 42, Holloway recounts undergoing an overwhelming number of surgeries over nearly two decades under his care.
During her continued visits, Holloway reported noticing peculiar behaviour from Perwaiz, including inappropriate advances and attempts to ask her out during examinations. She shared an anecdote from a pregnancy, stating, “When I had got pregnant again with, I think, I don’t know, I think it was my fourth kid and he was saying that I must have ‘good, good.'”
Holloway alleges that Perwaiz performed numerous vaginal exams, an involuntary hysterectomy, major surgeries, and falsely diagnosed her with cancer. “All the times that I signed papers, I was under anesthesia,” she revealed. She recounted a particularly distressing incident where, shortly after her mother passed away from stomach cancer, Perwaiz allegedly told her she had the same disease. “I went into the office and he said, ‘We’re going to have to do a surgery on you because you have cancer like your mother.’ And I started to cry,” Holloway stated. “I remember, I said, ‘No, my mother just died. I don’t want to die like my mom.'”
Despite her pleas, Perwaiz reportedly convinced her that surgery was essential. However, Holloway later discovered she had never had cancer, and Perwaiz lacked the necessary qualifications to perform the surgery in the first place. The mother of six now suffers from long-term side effects that have impacted her ability to work in her preferred warehouse job. “I can’t stand on my feet after four hours,” she explained. “I can’t stand on my feet. It hurts really badly. And it’s crazy because like when I try to sit down, I feel the pressure… it hurts really, really bad.”
In December 2025, Holloway, overwhelmed by the pain and trauma, engaged out-of-state attorney Victoria Wickman. “I went through all this pain, all these surgeries, all this stuff happened to me. I should not have to be going through this and just sitting here in the dark,” she expressed.
Another Victim’s Story of Deception and Addiction
Jivondra Tucker, 39, also shared her harrowing experience, having undergone at least 14 surgeries over nine years with Dr. Perwaiz, including three procedures in a single month in April 2013. This mother of four is among at least 500 other alleged victims who have joined Holloway’s lawsuit.
Tucker told reporters that the relentless operations took a severe toll on her mental health and led to a dependency on painkillers. “It was to the point where I was taking the pain meds for pain, and it went from me taking them not in pain, and just me just taking them to party,” she admitted.
Tucker initially sought Perwaiz’s care in 2010 at the age of 22, based on a friend’s recommendation, and continued under his care until his indictment in 2019. During her regular visits, Perwaiz reportedly performed pap smears and eventually diagnosed her with stage three cancer while she was pregnant with her son. “He told me that I was going to die,” she recounted.
Perwaiz allegedly advised Tucker to deliver her son prematurely at 37 weeks via C-section. While recovering from childbirth, a nurse informed her that her tubes had been tied. “I didn’t sign no papers to get my tubes tied,” Tucker asserted. “I had a C-section to have my son.” She explained that she had been informed of a partial hysterectomy and saw no reason for her tubes to be removed as well. Years later, she discovered she had never had cancer and her tubes were never tied. “I had a pregnancy scare years ago, like nine years ago, where I was pregnant in my tubes, the whole time, he never took my tubes out,” she revealed.
Tucker expressed her profound sense of betrayal: “I trust him with my life and I’m thinking that he saved my life and the whole time he doesn’t. He’s hurting me the whole time.” She now lives with constant pain and attends physical therapy regularly, while also managing Crohn’s disease. “I think I should be, you know, compensated for what happened, but it’s no amount of money in the world that will take that from what he did and what is going on with me,” she stated.
Allegations of Widespread Unnecessary Procedures
Other women have reported undergoing up to a dozen surgeries, many of which were allegedly not medically required. An FBI press release from the 2021 investigation stated, “He then pressured them into having immediate, invasive surgeries that they didn’t need.”
Perwaiz was convicted on 52 of 63 felony counts related to healthcare fraud and received a sentence of 59 years in prison. The FBI attributed his actions to “simple greed,” explaining that “The more surgeries he did, no matter how unnecessary, the more money he collected from Medicaid, Medicare, Tricare and private insurance.” The agency further noted that Perwaiz “lived a lavish lifestyle at the expense of his patients’ physical and mental health. He shopped at high-end stores and owned five luxury cars.”
A Landmark Lawsuit Against the Medical Center
Hundreds of Perwaiz’s former patients have joined Holloway’s lawsuit against Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, where the OB-GYN practiced. The total number of plaintiffs has now reached 1,000 victims, with a significant majority being Black women.
The legal team leading the case, New York lawyers Anthony T. DiPietro and Victoria Wickman, have described it as one of the largest of its kind. DiPietro commented, “I’ve called this the biggest story that nobody has heard about yet.”
The lawsuit alleges that Chesapeake Regional Medical Center was complicit in Perwaiz’s alleged malpractice. The complaint reads, “Plaintiffs bring this civil action against Defendants for enabling former physician Javaid Perwaiz to perform unnecessary, uninformed, harmful, invasive, unlawful, and life-altering gynecologic medical procedures on them and other women, for nearly a decade, at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, despite repeated reports and clear evidence of Perwaiz’s prior misconduct in his obstetrics and gynecology practice.”
Records indicate that Perwaiz had been censured by the Virginia Board of Medicine as early as 1982 for performing unnecessary surgeries and engaging in a sexual relationship with a patient. In addition to the medical center, the suit names hospital executives James Reese Jackson, Peter Francis Bastone, Wynn Lawton Dixon Jr, Donald S Buckley, and Christopher R Mosley. DiPietro stated, “They actively participated in it. By silencing people who tried to speak up, literally telling them, ‘Just be quiet. He’s making us a lot of money.'”
Wickman released a statement expressing the profound impact on her clients: “CRMC’s actions have impacted generations of Chesapeake families. Women seeking care were instead subjected to a Frankenstein-style chop shop, their families forced to pick up the pieces. Children were delivered prematurely to their physical detriment to fit a schedule and maximize revenue as a result. Hundreds of women were sterilized, and more continue to come forward.” She added, “They will live with the devastating effects of these surgeries for the rest of their lives. This is the largest healthcare civil rights violation in modern American history.”
Hospital’s Response
Chesapeake Regional Medical Center has clarified that Perwaiz was not a direct employee but operated independently within their facility. A statement from the hospital read, “The allegations that form the primary basis for this lawsuit were taken by Dr. Javaid Perwaiz – who has never been an employee of Chesapeake Regional Healthcare (CRH). His actions, for which he is now serving a lengthy prison sentence, occurred without the knowledge of the organization.”
A spokesperson for Chesapeake Regional Medical Center commented, “Out of respect for the legal process and the individuals involved, we are unable to comment on the specifics of ongoing litigation. We have tremendous empathy for the individuals harmed by a former OB-GYN who was convicted and has not been practicing since 2019. We did cooperate with the government’s investigation of the former OB-GYN, which led to his conviction. Chesapeake Regional Healthcare is committed to preserving safe, high-quality care, responsible governance and the long-term trust of the community we serve.”
Lawyers for Jackson, Bastone, Dixon, Buckley, Mosley, and Perwaiz have been contacted for comment.
