Original air date: December 21st 2025

Today, we track what has to be one of the most alarming and egregious cases of a doctor putting profits over patients. It’s the shocking case of a Virginia OB-GYN who charmed his way into families’ lives only to betray them for money—performing needless surgeries that scarred women forever, often at taxpayer expense. The broken trust raises an important question: how such a doctor managed to thrive in the U.S. medical system for so many decades despite the red flags.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

For over three decades, Shannon Lilley and her family placed their trust in Dr. Javaid Perwaiz, a respected obstetrician-gynecologist in Virginia.

Shannon Lilley: Started in 1983 with my mother, because he delivered both of my sisters.

She says Dr. Perwaiz was like family, charming her on her frequent visits. She became his patient at age 18.

Lilley: His demeanor is so soft and so soothing and so believable and just very, Doctor Zhivago almost, like that is how our family has kind of, you know, coined him because he’s very suave and handsome. Like, he always would say, “Oh, Shannon, you look just like your mother. You’re so beautiful.” Like, he just had a way of like just soothsaying women.

Only later would Lilley learn that beneath Dr. Perwaiz’s suave appearance was a greed-driven criminal who shattered the trust of hundreds of women, leaving some with irreversible injuries.

Over a decade, Perwaiz allegedly subjected Lilley to a dozen uterine procedures like scopings, polyp removals, and D&Cs to remove tissue. She says drew the line at a hysterectomy he pushed for, canceling it the day before.

Lilley: I called him on his personal cell phone. And he said, “You can’t do this.” I said, “I’m not, I’m not doing this. I’m not ready. I can’t put my body through this right now. It’s not a good time.” And he became, for the first time, an emotion that I had never seen in him before or heard.

Sharyl: Which was what?

Lilley: Disdain.

Over the years, Lilley faced complicated pregnancies, severe scarring, and warnings from other doctors about potential birth defects or infertility—issues she now attributes to Perwaiz’s interventions.

Lilley: Both of my children were very difficult childbirths. I almost died on both of them afterwards. I think that I was just so scarred inside that they weren’t, I wasn’t able to just hold them like they, that my body should have.

The truth emerged in late 2019 when the FBI called, telling Lilley that Dr. Perwaiz was under investigation for fraud, and unnecessary surgeries.

Lilley: And then I was contacted, stating: “You were a patient of Dr. Pewaiz, letting you know that your health records are being taken to a facility and being reviewed. Would you like a copy of them?” And it just started spiraling from there.

Sharyl: At first, was there disbelief?

Lilley: Yes.

Sharyl: You didn’t think this could be true?

Lilley: No. The last time I saw him, he had these like electric blue tennis shoes on. He was always spiffed up and just, you know, perfectly groomed. And I said, “Don’t retire on me anytime soon.” And he said, “I will not. I will not ever retire.” And that was it. Those were my last words.

Maureen Dixon: It’s one of the worst abuse cases, patient abuse cases I’ve seen.

Maureen Dixon, a special agent with the Health and Human Services Inspector General, helped lead the probe.

Dixon: He really was kind of an institution in that area and unfortunately what he did was take advantage of that trust and violate his sacred oath. And he essentially hurt people for money. He committed healthcare fraud, but more, worse than that is he actually was hurting his patients.

She says investigation was sparked by an anonymous nurse’s tip in 2018 about unnecessary surgeries on Medicaid patients.

Investigators revealed numerous schemes including early baby deliveries scheduled for his convenience and cash.

Dixon: He did it so many times, the nurses actually had a term for it. It was called a “Perwaiz Special.” And that unfortunately meant there was an infant who was delivered before 39 weeks who was having some kind of medical situation that required them to either go to the NICU, fluid in their lungs, things of that nature.

Sharyl: Delivered unnecessarily? Before

Dixon: Correct.

Sharyl: What are some of the other overarching themes?

Dixon: Another area of particular concern would be he would tell a patient that they needed to have a certain organ removed whether it was, say your ovaries. However, when they’d wake up from the surgery, they had a hysterectomy instead. So he would frequently do something different than what the patient consented to.

Alleged victims included a 33 year old who consented to cyst removal but woke up to find her ovaries gone. Another patient agreed to ovary removal but got a full hysterectomy. Others suffered bowel punctures, nerve damage, and a child with cerebral palsy after a premature C-section.

Sharyl: There were other women that he told they had cancer and needed a hysterectomy or they would get cancer if they didn’t have it and none of that was true?

Dixon: At times he would say that he was taking a biopsy. However, he wasn’t. Frequently, he was not actually taking biopsies or sending biopsies out to have them viewed. He was just telling you had cancer. So to intentionally scaring people to think you have cancer or intentionally misdiagnosing it is absolutely egregious.

Red flags dated back decades: Fired in 1982 from Maryview Hospital for 11 unnecessary hysterectomies on young women; censured in 1984 for a sexual relationship with a patient; convicted in 1996 of two tax fraud felonies.

Before his 2019 arrest, Perwaiz admitted in a recorded interview to seeing an incredible number of patients.

Audio Recording, Dr. Javaid Perwaiz interview with Federal Agents – October 28, 2019:

Special Agent: Do you know about how many patients you have overall?

Dr. Javaid Perwaiz: Thousands.

Special Agent: Thousands? Okay.

Dr. Perwaiz: I’ve been in practice for 39 years.

Special Agent: Yes, sir.

Dr. Perwaiz: So you can add, if I see even a hundred patients a week.

Special Agent: Okay. That’s a lot.

Dr. Perwaiz: So, 400 maybe a month.

Special Agent: Oh wow, Okay.

Dr. Perwaiz: Maybe 5,000 a year.

Special Agent: Okay.

Dr Perwaiz: 4,000 something like that.

Dr. Perwaiz quickly clammed up, admitting no wrongdoing. A hotline drew over 500 complaints. In 2020, a jury convicted him on 52 counts, including health care fraud involving the taxpayer funded programs Medicare and Medicaid. He’s serving a 59-year prison sentence.

Sharyl: Were you able to quantify how much he defrauded the government or insurance programs?

Dixon: We ended up with a restitution amount of about $20 million. So that is what we estimate the loss was here, that we could prove as well. This, like I said before, was an extremely egregious case, and while recovering $20 million of taxpayer funds is important, it really pales in comparison to stopping what he was doing to all these patients and women who maybe never will be able to have children because of his actions.

Today, Lilley says she struggles with distrust, avoiding doctors and questioning every medical interaction. We asked her to read the conclusion of the victim impact statement she wrote.

Lilley: You have had a tremendous impact on every woman who trusted you. No two journeys the same. No two stories alike. No “one” resolving factor that could bring peace to the havoc you have brought to each and every one of us. You have become a ghost to me, Mr. Perwaiz. My only wish is that the dollar signs you saw in each of us are replaced by the faces of all of your ghosts, your patients, all of the women who trusted you and that you are haunted by us all for the entire 465 years you deserve.

Sharyl (on-camera): A federal grand jury has now indicted the hospital where Perwaiz practiced for 35 years up until his arrest: Chesapeake Regional Medical Center. The charges are healthcare fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government since hospital officials allegedly knew about the accusations of unnecessary surgeries and felony convictions. According to prosecutors, in the nine years prior to his arrest, the hospital received $18.5 million from insurance as a result of procedures Dr. Perwaiz conducted. Hospital officials deny any wrongdoing.

Watch the video here.