Surgeon accused of killing patient by removing wrong organ is charged with manslaughter

A Florida surgeon who is accused of removing the wrong organ from a patient, leading to his death, is now facing second-degree manslaughter charge.

Dr Thomas Shaknovsky, who was taken into custody in Miramar Beach on Monday, allegedly removed 70-year-old William Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen during an operation at the Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Florida in August 2024.

Bryan, 70, from Alabama, had been holidaying with his wife Beverly, who works in healthcare, along the Emerald Coast when he started suffering abdominal pains on the left side of his body.

He initially rejected advice to have surgery to remove his spleen because he wanted to see his doctor back home, but agreed to it when the pain become too much.

However, operating room staff reportedly expressed concerns over Dr Shaknovsky’s ability to carry out the ‘complicated’ procedure, with the incident report also stating that the operation took place with a skeleton-crew medical team due to short-staffing at that time of day.

According to Walton County Sherriff’s Office, the doctor then removed Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen during a laparoscopic surgery, which resulted in ‘catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table’.

Shaknovsky claimed that Bryan was suffering with a splenic artery aneurysm which ruptured, initially telling investigators he had been able to control the aneurysm, but later admitting he had been unable to.

As a result of this he is said to have decided to complete the splenectomy (spleen removal) as a last-ditch attempt to stem the bleeding, after the patient had been in cardiac arrest for 15 minutes.

The report states that Shaknovsky said he fired a stapling device ‘blindly into the abdomen’ to seal the alleged aneurysm and ‘removed an organ that he believed to be a spleen,’ according to Daily Mail.

It added: ‘The staff inside the operating room later witnessed the liver on the table and were shocked when Dr. Shaknovsky told them that it was a spleen.’

An autopsy later revealed there was no evidence Bryan had suffered an aneurysm, with the medical examiner stating that he had died after Shaknovsky dissected his inferior vena cava — the largest vein in the body.

It was this which led to the bleeding that caused his death, the report states.

It also pointed out the differences between the spleen and the liver, explaining that the organ removed from Bryan’s body weighed 2,106 grams.

It added that even an enlarged spleen would only weigh around 400-500g, a quarter of the size of a normal liver.

The liver sits directly above the stomach, while the spleen is attached to its upper side. They are connected by the portal vein system, a network which carries blood through the gastrointestinal tract back to the heart.

Beverly’s lawyer Joe Zarzaur told local channel WKRG: ‘Basically, he makes himself out to be the hero who is trying to save this man’s life. When you think about it for more than two seconds, you know that’s not true.’

Shaknovsky’s license was suspended in November 2024 by State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo due to ‘repeated egregious surgical errors resulting in significant patient harm’ to Bryan and other patients.

His family previously filed a lawsuit against parties involved in the case, including the hospital and GenesisCare USA of Florida.

‘This heartbreaking loss has devastated the family of William Bryan, and we are seeking justice for this senseless tragedy,’ Zarzaur said at the time.

Beverly has also stated that she wants Shaknovsky – who has been banned from practicing medicine in Alabama and Florida – to be convicted, to prevent him from practicing elsewhere.

‘[It’s the] only way that you know for sure that he wouldn’t be licensed in another state,’ she said.