Hospital Sued Over Unnecessary Hysterectomies On Black Women

According to a bombshell lawsuit obtained by Atlanta Black Star, more than 600 women are pursuing $6 billion in damages, claiming they were forced to undergo medically unnecessary procedures—such as C-sections and hysterectomies—at the hands of now-imprisoned OB/GYN Javaid Perwaiz over the course of nearly a decade. The legal action names a Virginia hospital along with multiple current and former top executives as defendants.

Filed on Dec. 29, 2025, in Chesapeake City Circuit Court, the complaint claims Chesapeake Regional Medical Center (CRMC) irresponsibly granted and maintained surgical privileges for gynecologist Javaid Perwaiz, even after repeated warnings from hospital staff and insurance companies about his dangerous medical practices.

The lawsuit against Javaid Perwaiz alleges medical misconduct and more.

The plaintiffs—most of whom are Black women—are each demanding $10 million in compensation. They allege the hospital, current CEO James Reese Jackson, and four former senior executives knowingly allowed Perwaiz “to perform unnecessary, 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.”

As stated in the lawsuit, “The procedures that Perwaiz performed on Plaintiffs included irreversible hysterectomies and other medically unnecessary surgeries.”

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Court documents further allege that in November 2014, a patient informed CRMC that Perwaiz had removed her uterus due to what he claimed was a pre-cancerous condition, only for her to later learn the lesion was still present. One plaintiff, Denita Adams-Jordan, received care from Perwaiz at CRMC between roughly 2005 and 2019. During that period, and specifically from around 2005 through November 2019, the doctor allegedly performed multiple unnecessary and non-consensual dilation and curettage (D&C) procedures on her. 

D&C’s are used to remove tissue from the lining of the uterus, involving gently opening the cervix (dilation) and scraping or suctioning the uterine lining (curettage) with a special instrument, often to diagnose or treat abnormal bleeding, remove tissue after a miscarriage, or check for uterine cancer. 

However, this procedure and many of the treatments mentioned in the suit, weren’t carried out with patients’ care in mind—they were driven by pure greed, according to the FBI. By increasing the number of surgeries he performed, regardless of medical necessity, Perwaiz maximized reimbursements from Medicaid, Medicare, Tricare, and private insurers. He funded an extravagant lifestyle that included luxury shopping and ownership of five high-end vehicles, all while his patients suffered lasting physical and emotional harm. In some instances, Perwaiz even falsified pregnancy due dates to induce labor early for his own convenience, the FBI website noted. 

Authorities estimate more than $20 million was fraudulently billed over a decade, though investigators say the damage to victims cannot be measured in dollars. Many women were left traumatized, with some suffering permanent conditions such as incontinence or loss of sexual function.

“Many women who were subjected to this did not know what surgeries they had or why,” said Special Agent Desiree Maxwell, who investigated the case from the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office. “The patients were afraid, and he manipulated them.”

Javaid Perwaiz’s victims have spoken out about their horrific treatment.

Perwaiz lost his medical license and was convicted of healthcare fraud in 2020. He is currently serving a 59-year federal prison sentence for carrying out irreversible hysterectomies, improper sterilizations, violating medical protocols, and other unnecessary medical interventions.

In November 2020, a jury convicted Perwaiz on 52 counts of health care fraud. He was sentenced in May 2021 to 59 years in prison. Prosecutors established that his crimes occurred between at least 2010 and 2019, though women from earlier decades also came forward with allegations.

Among the newest plaintiffs is Shantel Boone, one of 94 additional women who joined the lawsuit in December. Boone says Perwaiz performed a D&C and an unnecessary hysterectomy on her in 2017, leaving her unable to have more children and forcing her into early menopause in her early 30s, WTKR News 3 reported. She initially sought treatment for stomach pain and later discovered—through another doctor—that her uterus had been removed. The pain was ultimately linked to a hernia.

“No. I do not have a uterus…And I found all of that out later going to another physician,” Boone shockingly revealed. “Night sweats, hormonal mood swings, just feeling depressed. And, I lost my husband. So when you think about starting over, I don’t have that option if I wanted to.”

Another plaintiff, Dracena Holloway, 42, a Portsmouth, Va., mother of seven, told the New York Times that Perwaiz induced her labor four times, sending each of her newborns to intensive care and leaving them with developmental delays. During a twin pregnancy in 2011, she said he performed a C-section and tubal ligation without her knowledge or consent, permanently sterilizing her.

Over six years, Holloway said Perwaiz repeatedly operated on her, falsely diagnosing her with fibroids and stomach cancer. He removed her uterus and performed abdominal surgery that left her with a large scar and chronic pain limiting her mobility.

“He made me feel very comfortable, like I was in good hands,” Holloway told the New York Times. “When he told you that you had to have surgery, he said, ‘Here, Dr. P. will take care of you.’ He was very convincing.”

Federal prosecutors allege that Perwaiz’s patients had babies admitted to neonatal intensive care units at unusually high rates, according to a criminal indictment filed Jan. 8 that also accuses CRMC of health care fraud, the Atlanta Black Star reported.

Javaid Perwaiz’s malpractice carried on for years, the lawsuit claims.

The suit claims CRMC permitted Perwaiz to practice there from 1984 through 2019, even after learning his privileges had been revoked at Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth for performing unnecessary surgeries—including irreversible hysterectomies—on roughly a dozen patients. Last week, a federal judge denied the hospital’s motion to dismiss the criminal case, WTKR reported.

Perwaiz’s medical license was first revoked in 1996 after he pleaded guilty to felony tax fraud. Among the offenses he admitted to was falsely listing a Ferrari luxury sports car as an ultrasound machine to claim it as a business expense, according to the complaint.

Despite this history, then-CRMC president Donald S. Buckley submitted a letter supporting Perwaiz during sentencing, referring to him as a “personal friend.” After Perwaiz served four months of home confinement, the hospital’s CEO wrote another letter backing his bid to regain his license. That correspondence included a profitability analysis showing that in 1995 alone, CRMC billed more than $760,000 for Perwaiz’s surgeries, netting the hospital approximately $400 per case.

The civil complaint argues that Perwaiz’s long-standing financial value to the hospital—where he remained “a top 10 earner”—caused administrators to overlook serious safety concerns and irregular practices. The suit alleges CRMC continued to credential him and grant privileges “based on financial motivation rather than patient safety or quality standards.”

According to the lawsuit, Perwaiz was allowed to bypass safeguards routinely used by other surgeons, such as photography or video recording in the operating room. A surgical technologist allegedly warned operating room management that Perwaiz refused to use these measures and ultimately declined to continue assisting him because she could not see what he was doing during procedures. The lawsuit further claims that in January 2014, Perwaiz altered a patient’s consent form after she had been placed under anesthesia to justify performing a more invasive surgery.

Javaid Perwaiz’s malpractice is reflective of dangerous issues within the healthcare system. Studies show that Black women are disproportionately subjected to unnecessary hysterectomies and C-sections compared to women of other racial groups. This disparity is often linked to provider bias, both implicit and explicit, which can affect medical judgment and lead doctors to recommend surgery more quickly or dismiss Black women’s symptoms and concerns. 

Notably, Black women are also less likely to be offered minimally invasive or uterus-sparing alternatives, such as laparoscopic procedures, myomectomies, or uterine embolization, and instead, are more often given total abdominal hysterectomies that carry greater risks and longer recovery times. And, as a 2024 New York Times report noted, financial incentives may further worsen these inequities, as hospitals and physicians typically receive higher reimbursement for surgical interventions, with research showing that higher C-section rates for Black women often occur when operating rooms are less busy.

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