A Florida surgeon had his license suspended after removing a patient's liver instead of his spleen, causing the patient to bleed and die on the operating table. And now the man's widow is seeking justice.
70-year-old Alabama couple Bill Bryan and his wife, Beverly, were visiting their rental property in Destin, Florida, on August 19 when Bryan began experiencing pain in his left side and was admitted to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast. At the hospital, Dr. He was diagnosed with an enlarged spleen by Thomas Shaknovsky and was also recommended emergency surgery.
“We called Bill's doctor back home in Northwest Alabama, and he told Bill that there would be surgeons waiting for us here in North Alabama when we got home,” said his wife, Beverly. WMBB 13 News. Dr. I tried to persuade Shaknovsky to let me take him home or arrange for him to be transported. However, Dr. Shaknovsky said Bill would bleed to death if he was moved.”
However, two days later on August 21, Bryan agreed to let Shaknovsky perform the surgery. The Florida Department of Health's emergency order later described the procedure as a “grave medical error” and described Shaknovsky as an “immediate, serious danger” to the public. He also went to great lengths to lie about his mistake, including falsifying medical records and pressuring witnesses to lie.
Shaknovsky claimed that he initially mistook the liver for an enlarged spleen because the two organs were different sizes, colors, and in an unusual location despite being on opposite sides of the body. However, witnesses in the operating room gave very different memories of the events.
The state order says Shaknovsky at one point said he felt the area he was trying to cut “pulsing under his finger” and described it as “terrible” to staff helping him.
After removing the liver, Bryan began bleeding severely and suffered a heart attack. But Shaknovsky continued making incisions despite “no visibility” due to heavy bleeding, and never once asked for handcuffs or cauterizers. It was also stated by witnesses that Bryan “blindly” fired the stapling device into his abdomen.
According to the order: “The staff looked at the easily identifiable liver on the table and were shocked when Dr. Shaknovsky told them it was a spleen. One staff member felt nauseous.”
After Bryant's death, Shaknovsky was said to have tried to convince witnesses that the cause of death was a “ruptured splenic artery aneurysm” and even requested that the liver be labeled “spleen” when sent to pathology. He then continued to lie about what was happening, claiming that he had operated on certain ligaments and structures that were left untouched.
But this allegedly wasn't even Shaknovsky's first serious medical error. In May 2023, he removed part of a patient's pancreas instead of their adrenal gland, claiming that the gland had “migrated” to a different part of the body.
“Dr. Shaknovsky's repeated serious surgical errors resulted in serious harm to the patient, and his failure to accept responsibility for these errors indicates that his reckless behavior is likely to continue,” the ruling said. The statement is included. “Therefore, Dr. Shaknovsky's continued practice as an osteopathic physician poses an immediate and serious danger to the health, welfare and safety of the public.”
Following her husband's death, Beverly is currently pursuing both criminal and civil cases.
“My husband died while he was helpless on Dr. Shaknovsky's operating table,” she said. Fox News Digital. “I don't want him to die because of anyone else's incompetence in a hospital where he knew or should have known that he had made serious, life-changing surgical mistakes before.
“Everyone knows you can't live without your liver. It's like they ripped out your heart. His heart,” he explained to the local news station. “I know I'm not the only wife who lost her husband suddenly, but losing my Bill was extremely unnecessary and cruel.
“We don't want this to happen to anyone else, we specifically want it to happen to this person,” he continued. “I didn't know it took this long for a doctor to lose his license. I thought it would be something, you know, as soon as it became known, it would happen. That's not the case.”