Board: Iowa transplant surgeon poses ‘immediate danger’ to public

The Iowa Board of Medicine has issued an emergency order suspending the license of a Des Moines surgeon accused of posing an immediate danger to the public.

In recent years, the surgeon, Dr. Qasim L. Chaudhry, has faced three lawsuits alleging negligence and medical malpractice. State records indicate the suspension of Chaudhry’s license stems from two separate board investigations that were launched in 2023 and 2024.

In public filings, the board alleges it has received complaints related to Chaudhry’s practice of medicine and concluded that he has failed to meet the required standard of care “in multiple patients and that failure led to significant harm” to patients.

Chaudhry, the board says, “poses an immediate danger to the public,” adding that it finds it necessary to immediately suspend Chaudhry’s medical license through an emergency adjudicative order.

The suspension is “necessary to protect the public health, safety, or welfare until this case is resolved due the severity of the potential consequences of (Chaudhry) practicing medicine in a surgical or clinical setting,” the board stated, adding that the imposition of any other “interim safeguards would not be sufficient to protect the public.”

Chaudhry is charged with professional incompetence and with knowingly making misleading, deceptive, untrue, or fraudulent representations in the practice of medicine.

The board has not publicly disclosed the alleged conduct that has given rise to the allegations and charges but has stated that Chaudhry is a “surgeon who practiced in the Des Moines area at all times relevant” to the emergency order.

A disciplinary hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 5 and 6, 2026.

Chaudhry has been an Iowa-licensed physician since June 2010. His practice specialty, according to board records, is transplant surgery.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Chaudhry for comment.

Three medical malpractice lawsuits

The board’s comes order comes four weeks after a medical malpractice and wrongful death case against Chaudhry and Iowa Methodist Medical Center was dropped by the plaintiffs after an out-of-court settlement was reached.

In that case, the estate of the late Donna Burton of Des Moines alleged Chaudhry performed a hernia repair on Burton on Nov. 23, 2020. Six days later, Burton allegedly went to the Iowa Methodist Medical Center emergency room to report that she was in pain, had not had a bowel movement since the operation, and was vomiting two or three times per day. She was allegedly admitted to the hospital and was found in her room the next morning, vomiting and gasping for air. She died minutes later, the lawsuit alleged, due to a bowel obstruction.

Prior to the settlement in the case, Chaudhry and the other defendants denied any wrongdoing.

In February 2025, Chaudhry and Iowa Methodist Medical Center were sued for negligence by Jasmine Hart, a 37-year-old woman who underwent a kidney transplant on Feb. 23, 2023. In her lawsuit, Hart alleged Chaudhry observed in his surgical notes that the donor’s kidney was “oozy,” and that after the surgery was completed, Iowa Methodist received a call from the Iowa Donor Network indicating the donor had tested positive for cancer.

The lawsuit claimed Chaudhry then determined the transplanted organ needed to be removed. After that operation was completed, Hart resumed dialysis and underwent regular cancer screenings as a result of her exposure to the cancerous donor organ, the lawsuit alleged.

In December 2023, Hart was allegedly diagnosed with kidney cancer. The cancerous kidney was removed, but Hart continued to suffer from nerve damage and pain as a result of the operations, the lawsuit claimed.

Chaudhry and the other defendants in the case denied any wrongdoing. The lawsuit was dropped by Hart in August 2025, with no reference to any out-of-court settlement that may have been reached.

In May 2025, Chaudhry and Iowa Methodist Medical Center were the focus of a third lawsuit alleging medical malpractice. In that case, the estate of the late Faye Jean Robinson of Waterloo alleged that in May 2023, Chaudhry performed surgery on Robinson to repair a hernia and to remove her kidney and spleen.

After the operation was complete, Chaudhry allegedly left the hospital and Robinson twice went into cardiac arrest and was placed on a ventilator. The lawsuit alleges that a second surgery was planned to repair suspected internal bleeding, but before it took place, Robinson went into cardiac arrest three more times, became “visibly swollen with blood coming from the orifices protruding from her body,” and then died.

Chaudhry and the other defendants in the case have denied any wrongdoing. A trial-setting conference in the case is scheduled for Jan. 29, 2026.