A Florida doctor now faces manslaughter charges years after he allegedly removed the wrong organ from a patient, leading to their death.
Dr Thomas Shaknovsky was charged with second-degree manslaughter on Monday for the August 2024 death of Bill Bryan, a 70-year-old man from Alabama.
Bryan and his wife, who works in healthcare, had been vacationing along the Emerald Coast in Florida when he got a pain in his abdomen.
While in the hospital, Bryan was talked into a surgery to remove his spleen after the doctor allegedly wouldn't allow Bryan to visit his own doctor back home.
Operating room staff allegedly 'had concerns' that Shaknovsky didn't have the skill to perform a spleen removal, which was described as a 'complicated' procedure.
Dr. Shaknovsky proceeded with the complicated procedure despite a skeleton-crew medical staff at the time of the surgery, according to the incident report. Due to the time of day, the hospital was short-staffed.
During surgery, Shaknovsky allegedly removed Bryan's liver instead of his spleen during a laparoscopic surgery, 'resulting in catastrophic blood loss and the patient's death on the operating table,' the Walton County Sheriff's Office said.
The liver is located directly above the stomach. The spleen is attached to the upper side of the stomach.
Dr Thomas Shaknovsky was charged with second-degree manslaughter on Monday, nearly two years after his patient, Bill Bryan, died on his operating table
Bryan and his wife, Beverly, had been vacationing in Florida when Bryan got a pain in his abdomen, taking him to the hospital
The spleen and liver are connected through the portal vein system, a network of veins that carries blood through the gastrointestinal tract before returning it to the heart.
After a grand jury found probable cause to charge the physician, Shaknovsky was taken into custody in Miramar Beach on Monday and remains in the Walton County Jail.
'Having worked in the medical field, it disappointed me so much,' Bryan's wife, Beverly, a former nurse, told WKRG.
Shaknovsky claimed to have discovered a splenic artery aneurysm. According to him, the aneurysm ruptured, which resulted in the severe hemorrhaging that would eventually cause his death.
At first, Shaknovsky told investigators that he was able to control the aneurysm.
In a subsequent interview, however, he admitted that 'he had never been able to control the aneurysm, but instead decided to complete the splenectomy in a last-ditch effort to control the bleeding after [Bryan] had already been in cardiac arrest for 15 minutes.'
Beverly's lawyer, Joe Zarzaur, said the doctor's version of events doesn't line up.
'Basically, he makes himself out to be the hero who is trying to save this man's life,' Zarzaur told WKRG. 'When you think about it for more than two seconds, you know, that's not true.'
After being talked into surgery, Shaknovsky allegedly removed Bryan's liver instead of his spleen, causing him to bleed out on the table
Shaknovsky claimed to have discovered a splenic artery aneurysm. After the aneurysm ruptured, it hemorrhaged, leading to his death, he said. A medical examiner didn't find evidence of an aneurysm
When a medical examiner later performed an autopsy on William, no evidence was found to suggest there had ever been an aneurysm.
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 the report.
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,' the report said.
One staff member reported feeling 'sick to their stomach.'
Shaknovsky claimed that the liver was 'in an unusual location,' which he said contributed to his mistake.
The medical examiner found that William died because, throughout the course of the operation, Shaknovsky dissected his inferior vena cava, the largest vein in the body.
This error is what caused the massive bleeding that led to his death, not a ruptured aneurysm Shaknovsky failed to control, according to the report.
Additionally, the autopsy revealed that William’s spleen and its attachments were ‘untouched’ and ‘in the normal position.’
Beverly wants Shaknovsky to be convicted, and to get justice for her late husband
'Having worked in the medical field, it disappointed me so much,' Beverly, a former nurse, said
The report also went to great lengths to distinguish between a liver and a spleen, calling the two organs 'anatomically distinct.'
Shaknovsky removed Bryan’s liver, which weighed 2,106 grams, according to the report.
Even an enlarged spleen would only weigh up to 400 to 500 grams, per the report, roughly four times smaller than a normal liver.
Beverly expressed she wants Shaknovsky to be convicted of his alleged crime to keep him from practicing medicine in the future.
'Only way that you know for sure that he wouldn't be licensed in another state,' Beverly said.
Shaknovsky had a previous incident where he removed part of a pancreas instead of an adrenal gland, the outlet reported.
After Bryan’s death, Shaknovsky has now been barred from practicing medicine in both Alabama and Florida.