Florida Surgeon Charged with Manslaughter After Removing Patient’s Liver He Thought Was His Spleen

A Florida doctor has been indicted for manslaughter after he removed a 70-year-old patient’s liver instead of his spleen, causing the Alabama man to bleed to death on the operating table.

After a two-year investigation, a grand jury has indicted Dr. Thomas Shaknovksy, 44, for second-degree manslaughter after removing the wrong organ from William Bryan from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, according to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.

The botched operation was detailed in a Florida Department of Health emergency order that resulted in the state surgeon general suspending Dr. Shaknovsky’s license a month after the fatal procedure in 2024.

According to that document, Shaknovksy’s patient came to the Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital in Miramar Beach complaining of abdominal pain while visiting the Florida Panhandle with his wife on August 19, 2024.

Dr. Shaknovsky, an osteopathic physician board certified in general surgery, recommended his spleen be removed with a laparoscopic splenectomy after imaging showed it was enlarged, according to the suspension order’s narrative.

However, Bryan refused the surgery and wanted to return home to Alabama, though he was admitted to the hospital to manage his pain.

There, Dr. Shaknovsky continually “ pressured” the patient to have the procedure, according to the document, with Bryan finally relenting on his third day at Ascension.

The procedure was scheduled late in the day on Aug. 21, 2024. According to the suspension document:

Operating room (OR) staff members noted that Dr. Shaknovsky scheduled the splenectomy and were concerned with it being done so late in the day since they only had a skeletal crew. OR staff knew splenectomies were complicated procedures that could quickly deteriorate and were not regularly performed at Ascension. OR staff had concerns that Dr. Shaknovsky did not have the skill level to safely perform this procedure.

During the operation, Dr. Shaknovsky started with a less-invasive laparoscopic procedure but then converted to an “open procedure,” apparently because of low visibility inside his abdomen.

During the open operation, the doctor cut the blood vessels around the liver, triggering a severe hemorrhage, at one point firing a “stapling device blindly” into the patient’s abdomen in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

The surgeon continued dissecting and removing the 4.6 pound organ he thought was the spleen, even as an emergency code was called as the patient went into cardiac arrest.

According to the suspension document:

Spleens and livers are anatomically distinct, have different consistencies, and are different colors. Additionally, the spleen is located on the left side of the abdomen while the liver is on the right side. The staff looked at the readily-identifiable liver on the table and were shocked when Dr. Shaknovsky told them that it was a spleen. One staff member felt sick to their stomach.

Bryan was pronounced dead in the operating room.

Dr. Shaknovsky “fabricated” in medical records that he died of a splenic artery aneurysm and even requested staff to label the liver as a “spleen” and send it to pathology, according to the suspension order.

A subsequent autopsy showed that his spleen had never been touched in the operation.

The fatal error was not the first time Dr. Shaknovsky misidentified a patient’s anatomy in the OR. During an operation in 2023, he removed a portion of a patient’s pancreas instead of the left adrenal gland as had been planned.

In response to the error, the surgeon claimed the gland had “migrated” to a different part of the body, according to the suspension order.

According to Medical News Today, Dr. Shaknovsky, who “also speaks Russian,” was a 2009 graduate of Midwestern University and completed his residency at Hackensack University Medical Center. He’s listed with 17 years of experience as a surgeon.

The sheriff’s department arrested Shaknovksy on Monday. He was taken to the Walton County Jail where he is awaiting his first court appearance.

Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.