PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2025) — A Palm Beach County man is suing two physicians and the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute over a knee procedure done in late 2022, saying the surgery left him in worse shape than when he walked in.
The case — Peter Bonacci v. Tom Minas, M.D.; Craig Robbins, M.D.; and Tenet Florida Physician Services II, LLC d/b/a Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute — was filed Nov. 25 in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit (Case No. 502025CA012303XXXAMB). It’s a straight medical-malpractice complaint, filed just before lunch according to the timestamp from the clerk.
Bonacci, 63, first went to the Paley Institute on Oct. 25, 2022, complaining of long-term knee pain — plus lingering trouble from a bicycle crash that had already sent him into vascular surgery. The filing says he came back on Nov. 7, this time seeing Dr. Craig Robbins, and that the two visits led to a recommendation for a total right knee replacement, with a peroneal nerve decompression done at the same time.
But he says neither Robbins nor Dr. Tom Minas explained the risks of that nerve procedure before he agreed to it. No rundown of hazards, no meaningful talk about alternatives. Just a plan, and then the surgery.
Late December 2022 — a couple days before Christmas — Minas performed the knee arthroplasty while Robbins handled the nerve decompression. Afterward, Bonacci says his condition deteriorated: burning neuropathy in the bottom of his right foot, reduced range of motion, and the kind of pain that forced him to use a walker. The suit calls it a “permanent and catastrophic injury.”
A bad outcome, he argues, but more importantly an avoidable one.
The six-count complaint accuses both doctors of negligence and lack of informed consent, while also holding Tenet Florida Physician Services II — the corporate entity behind the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute — vicariously liable as their employer. According to the filing, both physicians were acting within the scope of their work at the time.
Bonacci claims the doctors didn’t properly evaluate him, didn’t document their findings, and went ahead with a nerve decompression that wasn’t medically justified. He also says he never would’ve agreed to that portion of the surgery if he’d been told the full list of risks or other options.
There’s a familiar set of damages laid out: pain, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, reduced quality of life, medical bills, even an aggravation of a pre-existing condition. All allegedly permanent. All allegedly stemming from those December procedures.
Freedland Harwin Valori Gander Spillis, PLLC — out of Fort Lauderdale, just off Andrews Ave. — is handling the case for the plaintiff. Attorneys Daniel Harwin and Melissa Gunion signed the complaint.
These are allegations only. The defendants haven’t filed their responses yet.
The original document, as filed with the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court, can be viewed here.
Related explainer: Medical Malpractice Lawsuits.
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