Hospital let gynecologist perform ‘unnecessary’ C-sections and hysterectomies on over 500 women ‘to increase its own revenue’ without patient consent

A Virginia hospital is accused of allowing a physician to repeatedly perform unnecessary medical procedures to boost hospital revenue, including surgeries allegedly carried out without patient consent, according to a newly filed civil lawsuit.

More than 500 women filed suit Monday in Virginia Circuit Court against Chesapeake Regional Medical Center (CRMC), alleging the hospital knowingly allowed former gynecologist Javaid Perwaiz to perform medically unjustified procedures over nearly a decade. The complaint claims Perwaiz routinely scheduled early labor inductions and surgeries that were not medically necessary, sometimes for his own convenience.

According to the lawsuit, the practice was so common that CRMC neonatologists allegedly referred to the resulting premature births requiring intensive care as the “Perwaiz special.” The complaint states that Perwaiz’s scheduling of unnecessary inductions and surgeries was an “open secret” within the hospital’s labor and delivery unit.

The plaintiffs—510 former patients—also named multiple hospital executives as defendants, accusing them of failing to intervene despite repeated warning signs. Perwaiz is currently serving a 59-year federal prison sentence after being convicted of Medicaid fraud related to unnecessary medical procedures.

CRMC itself was indicted in January 2025 on federal charges of health care fraud and conspiracy, with prosecutors alleging the hospital participated in a billing scheme tied directly to Perwaiz’s actions. Both the indictment and the civil lawsuit allege that Perwaiz performed medically unjustified obstetric and gynecological procedures between January 2010 and November 2019.

The lawsuit details multiple instances in which patients say procedures were performed without their consent. In one case, the complaint alleges Perwaiz altered a consent form while a patient was under anesthesia to justify a more invasive surgery. In another, a patient reported undergoing a hysterectomy for a supposedly pre-cancerous condition, only to later learn the issue had not been resolved.

Other patients alleged they consented to limited procedures but later discovered far more extensive surgeries had been performed. One woman said she underwent an unnecessary and uninformed cesarean section that resulted in serious complications. Another reported waking up from surgery to find an unexpected surgical scar.

Federal prosecutors have also detailed allegations that