SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A Portsmouth woman’s $5 million lawsuit against Bon Secours Healthcare System is set for trial in October, claiming that the OBGYN who operated on her should not have been credentialed at the provider’s Harbour View Surgery Center and Maryview Hospital.
Javaid Perwaiz was convicted for healthcare fraud in federal court in 2020 following unnecessary and invasive procedures he performed on more than 50 local women. The troubling saga was documented in the 10 On Your Side investigation, The Patients v. Perwaiz.
Perwaiz was sentenced to 59 years in prison, and ordered to repay government and private insurers more than $20 million.
Perwaiz first treated Toya Williams of Portsmouth in June 2019. She complained of pain associated with a scar from a previous Cesarean section. According to her lawsuit, Perwaiz performed tests and told her she had both cancerous and pre-cancerous cells, and needed surgery. After the procedure, an oncologist determined that she was never malignant, the lawsuit claims.
“She did have an invasive procedure that was done, and part of her body was removed without her knowledge and consent, and that impacts her greatly. She is still shaken,” said Williams’ attorney Travis Markley of the Trialhawk Litigation Group, LLC of Reston.
Williams’s lawsuit against Bon Secours Harbour View Surgery Center and Maryview Hospital says they should have known about the numerous violations in Perwaiz’s past, including several disciplinary actions including periods of censure and revocation of his license by the Virginia Board of Medicine.
WAVY has reached out to Bon Secours for comment on the lawsuit and the healthcare system did not immediately respond.
“[Both the surgery center and the hospital] needed to take full stock of who this gentleman was — his full history, all the way back to the 80s when his license was censured,” Markley said. “In the 90s, there’s evidence he’s a bad actor. In the 2000s, 2010s, at every step along the way, somebody needed to stand up and say enough is enough.”
The lawsuit goes to trial in Suffolk in October, and Williams is preparing to be put on trial herself.
“She’s holding up as well as one might expect knowing that there’s an eight-day trial two months away where her personal life will be exposed,” Markley said.
Markley’s Northern Virginia-based law firm deals exclusively in medical malpractice. He said the Perwaiz case stands apart as an assault to the senses.
“The shock that we see is about as high as it gets with respect to the systemic failure,” Markley said.
In addition to Williams herself, Markley said he plans to call several experts on medical credentialing and OBGYN procedures as part of his case.