NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – The jury for the Dr. Javaid Perwaiz federal trial got an education on the female reproductive system Thursday.
Prosecutors called Philadelphia OB-GYN Dr. Jay Golberg to the stand Thursday to talk about words such as “hysterectomy,” “cervix,” “uterus” and “sterilization.”
Goldberg told the jury he reviewed files from Perwaiz’s patients and disagreed with some of the Chesapeake doctor’s diagnoses.
A 34-year-old Norfolk woman who went to Perwaiz to have her “tubes tied” — a tubal ligation procedure — in 2010 took the stand. She told the jury Perwaiz said she could have her tubes “untied” if she wanted and there would still be a 99% chance of getting pregnant. She did that in 2015 and since has had four miscarriages and has been unable to have a child.
The patient also told the jury she had eight surgeries done by Perwaiz in nine years.
“He was my doctor,” she told the jury. “I thought he what he was saying was correct. As a doctor you would trust what they say to you.”
Stephen Quindoza from Jacksonville, Florida then took the stand. Quindoza works for HMS Federal Solutions, the company that monitors Medicaid and Medicare.
Quindoza told the court that 1.2 billion Medicaid claims are processed per year and the government relies on doctors to be truthful with the claims.
Prosecutors say Perwaiz treated mostly Medicaid patients and filed claims for procedures that weren’t done.
A 30-year-old former patient that went in court by “A.C.” told the jury that she went to Perwaiz in 2018 to have a tubal ligation. She says she consulted several doctors who wouldn’t do the procedure, but Perwaiz would.
A.C. told the jury she told him she wanted her tubes cut and then burned. He agreed. Years later, she got a call from the FBI saying Perwaiz used bands to clamp the tubes. She says she had no idea.
Perwaiz is facing 61 federal charges. Prosecutors say he performed unnecessary surgeries on women as part of a scheme to defraud insurance companies.
Testimony in this five-week trial picks up again Friday morning.