PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — A Texas woman is suing a surgeon at the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute, saying she walked into his Palm Beach County office with back pain and legs that “were giving out,” and left with a permanent neurological injury that’s followed her for years.
The case — filed Nov. 25 in the 15th Judicial Circuit under 502025CA012301XXXAMB — lays out a long spinal surgery, a rough recovery, and what she calls a cascade of problems afterward.
The plaintiff, Mary Lorang, had traveled from Montgomery County, Texas, for care. She saw Dr. Jahangir Asghar at the institute, which sits just off the medical corridor near Good Samaritan, and he recommended a complex spinal fusion. A long one. On Sept. 21, 2021, he performed a posterior fusion from T10 all the way down to the pelvis, with instrumentation, bilateral iliac bolts, decompression from L3 through S1, TLIFs at two levels, and a series of osteotomies. A stacked procedure.
Afterward, according to the complaint, Lorang developed an acute foot drop. The filing says it showed up right after surgery but wasn’t worked up quickly, or thoroughly, in the first stretch of recovery. She alleges that as the weeks went by her symptoms did not get any better. An EMG wasn’t ordered until later, the suit notes, and by then she says the delay left her needing additional surgeries plus dealing with infections and other complications that compounded her injuries.
She calls the damage permanent. Long-term pain, disfigurement, the usual list you see in these filings but with a tone that suggests it’s been a heavy few years. The lawsuit frames all of it as the result of negligent postoperative care.
There’s also a claim that Dr. Asghar’s employer, Tenet Florida Physician Services II, LLC, doing business as the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute, is on the hook because he was acting as an employee or agent at the time. A standard vicarious liability count, though it’s written more sharply than most.
Another aside in the filing: Lorang says the defendants didn’t fully meet Florida’s Chapter 766 presuit requirements, particularly on producing records she says should have been provided before the suit was filed.
Freedland Harwin Valori Gander Spillis PLLC, out of Fort Lauderdale, is representing her. Attorneys Daniel Harwin and Melissa Gunion signed the complaint, which ends with a jury demand and the expected request for compensatory damages and costs.
The original document, as filed with the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court, can be viewed here.
See this explainer for a background on malpractice claims and how they’re typically litigated.
