Nearly a year after he was arrested and accused of performing unnecessary surgeries to enrich himself, a longtime Chesapeake obstetrician-gynecologist took the witness stand Wednesday to offer his first public response to the charges.
Dr. Javaid Perwaiz, 70, testified for almost two hours in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, and will return to the witness stand Thursday.
A native of Pakistan who practiced in South Hampton Roads for almost four decades, Perwaiz is charged with multiple counts of health care fraud, making false statements related to health care matters and identity theft.
His trial began two weeks ago and is expected to wrap up by next week.
Perwaiz told jurors he graduated from medical school in Pakistan in 1973 and arrived in the United States a year later, unable to speak English and with just $30 in his pocket.
He initially stayed with friends of his parents near Washington, D.C., slept on their kitchen floor, and worked hard to learn English. He was accepted into a four-year medical residency training program in West Virginia and decided to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology.
In 1980, he took a job with an OB-GYN practice in Portsmouth, built up a clientele, and opened his own private practice in Chesapeake a couple years later.
Soon, his patients started referring their friends and family members to him and he was seeing thousands of patients each year. He also obtained privileges at two hospitals in Portsmouth to perform surgeries.
But in 1983, his privileges at Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center were revoked after he was accused of performing unnecessary sterilizations on multiple patients — including some in their 20s — and keeping poor records. He also was alleged to have had a sexual relationship with a patient.
On the witness stand Wednesday, Perwaiz admitted his record keeping “left something to be desired,” but denied performing unnecessary procedures. The fact that Maryview is a Catholic hospital may have had something to do with officials there objecting to his sterilization procedures, he testified.
Perwaiz also told jurors he was so dedicated to his medical practice that he worked almost every day and rarely took vacations. He told his pregnant patients, “If I’m alive, I’ll be there,” to deliver their babies, he said.
As to why he performed so many procedures, Perwaiz said a large majority of the women who came to him were Medicaid and Medicare patients and they tended to have more health issues due to a lack of preventative care. Many of them also were Black women, he said, who are much more likely to have “gynecological issues” and develop things like fibroids.
When asked why he asked staff to record patient blood pressure readings that were high on a “sticky note” rather than on a patient’s chart, he said it was because he wanted to double check the finding himself to make sure they were right.
Perwaiz also admitted he didn’t use gas or liquids to stretch a patient’s uterus while performing in-office hysteroscopies because he said it’s painful and only needed when a doctor is trying to remove something. When he performed the procedure, which is done to look into a woman’s uterus, it was only to diagnose a possible problem, he said.
In other testimony Wednesday, Chesapeake anesthesiologist John Gover told jurors he worked with Perwaiz for about 25 years and described him as highly skilled. Gover said that of all the surgeons he’s assisted over three decades, Perwaiz was in the top one percent.
Also on Thursday, the prosecution wrapped up its case with testimony from one of the FBI agents who investigated Perwaiz.
Agent Danita Lopes told jurors about two counts of federal tax evasion that Perwaiz pleaded guilty to in 1996, which led to him having his license suspended for four months.
The doctor bought a $84,942 Ferrari with funds from a business money market account and claimed on his taxes the money was used to purchase medical equipment, Lopes said. He also bought a Mercedes sports car, oriental rugs, jewelry, furniture and other luxury items, then claimed the funds were used to pay for medical malpractice insurance, she said.
Lopes also told jurors of the millions that were paid to Chesapeake Regional Medical Center and Bon Secours Surgery Center at Harbour View as a result of surgeries Perwaiz performed during a nearly 10-year period.
From 2010 to 2019, Chesapeake Regional got $18.4 million for surgeries done by Perwaiz, the agent said, and Harbour View got $3.1 million.
Jane Harper, 757-222-5097, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
