CHESAPEAKE, Va. — The multi-billion lawsuit against Chesapeake Regional Medical Center (CRMC) in connection with unnecessary surgeries performed by jailed former doctor Javaid Perwaiz over several decades has now reached 1,000 plaintiffs, each seeking $10 million, according to documents obtained by News 3 on Friday.
The total number of women named in the lawsuit is now 1,040, pushing the total lawsuit to over $10 billion, according to the complaint. The number of plaintiffs in the suit has nearly doubled since News 3 first reported on this lawsuit back in December.
The complaint specifically accuses the defendants of "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."
Perwaiz, a former doctor, is currently serving a 59-year-long federal prison sentence for conducting irreversible hysterectomies, improper sterilizations, and other medically unnecessary procedures for over a decade. He misled women about their health, telling some they had cancer when they did not, according to court records. Perwaiz was convicted in 2020.
In Nov. 2025, News 3's True Crime 757 Podcast did a deep dive on Perwaiz and the harm he inflicted on vulnerable patients in his care.
Five defendants are named in the suit: James Reese Jackson — the system CEO terminated May 31 after 10 years in the role, according to the complaint — and predecessors Peter Bastone, Donald Buckley, Wynn Dixon and Christopher Mosley.
On June 1, CRMC announced that it had parted ways with Jackson but did not state the circumstances. The complaint clarifies that he was terminated.
Amber Egyud was appointed interim CEO.
News 3 Chesapeake reporter Erin Holly reached out to the hospital system on Friday for comment on this development — they sent back the following statement:
"Thank you for the opportunity to respond. However, 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 from the community who was convicted and has not been practicing since 2019.
Chesapeake Regional Healthcare is committed to preserving safe, high-quality care, responsible governance and the long-term trust of the community we serve."
Watch previous coverage: Chesapeake Regional Healthcare CEO departs amid lawsuit, federal indictment
The complaint also alleges the defendants’ relationship with Perwaiz led to safety concerns and abnormal practices being ignored. It further states that Perwaiz’s continued credentialing and privileging as a doctor at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center was allowed “based on financial motivation rather than patient safety or quality standards.”
An email included in the complaint outlines concerns raised about Perwaiz's surgical frequency, his behavior, prior felony convictions, and despite these issues, he retained surgical hospital privileges at CRMC.
News 3 has been covering this story for years and has talked to several women who say Perwaiz violated them.
“Come to find out he never took my ovaries... He did the hysterectomy, told my family that I had cancer. I had none of it," one of the victims said back in 2020 after Perwaiz's conviction.
"I started seeing Dr. Perwaiz as a teenager, and he gained the trust of both me and my parents by convincing us he was protecting my ability to have children after telling me my diagnoses would make pregnancy difficult, something I struggled with for years," said former CRMC patient Heather Bryant. "He performed surgeries on me every one to two years for nearly two decades, but the emotional trauma of realizing it was all built on lies has been even harder to overcome. Years later, I heard hospital staff referred to him as the 'Butcher of Chesapeake' because of the endless stream of women he took into surgery. Chesapeake Regional protected him, and they must be held accountable for the lives they destroyed."
Perwaiz was sentenced to serve 59 years in prison.
Watch related: Victims share stories as lawsuit against Chesapeake Regional grows to over 600 women seeking $6 billion
News 3 Chesapeake Reporter Erin Holly spoke to the attorneys for the hundreds of women who are suing Chesapeake Regional Medical Center.
“This case isn't just about malpractice. It's not just about fraud," said Anthony DiPietro, a patient safety and medical malpractice trial attorney. "And it's not just about CRMC's theft of taxpayer money for all the unnecessary surgeries that Perwaiz performed...But what this case is really about, is it is the largest Civil Rights violation to occur in modern healthcare."
Prior to the lawsuit, in January 2025, CRMC was criminally indicted by a federal grand jury due to allegations that the hospital was complicit in Perwaiz's crimes.
Watch previous coverage: Indictment of Chesapeake Regional alleges hospital was complicit in former OBGYN's crimes
Prosecutors also allege that CRMC allowed Perwaiz to perform surgeries there from 1984 until 2019, despite being aware that his medical privileges had been terminated at Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth for performing unnecessary surgeries.
Read the federal indictment here:
Chesapeake
Grand jury indictment of Chesapeake Regional Medical Center
From 2010 to 2019, the hospital reportedly received about $18.5 million in reimbursements from healthcare benefit programs for surgeries performed by Perwaiz. The indictment also indicates that some employees raised concerns regarding his conduct, but no action was taken.
Chesapeake Regional Healthcare previously sent the following statement to News 3. We have reached out for an updated statement Friday.
"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. CRH strives to provide the best care to its patients, including through its medical staff physicians. Unfortunately, privacy laws prohibit us from commenting further on these allegations."
News 3 Chesapeake Reporter Erin Holly asked the plantiff's attorneys for a response to the previous statement issued by CRMC.
“There are procedures in place to make sure that the physicians that are performing surgeries and treating patients in medical institutions are qualified to do so, and that they’re safe," DiPietro said.
“They provided him the opportunity to continue to do this ," said Victoria Wickman, a medical malpractice trial lawyer. "And if a doctor doesn’t have an operating room to perform his monstrous acts, then they don’t happen, and women are protected."
Wickman and DiPietro tell News 3 they expect pre-trial proceedings to start next month.
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