Patient Dies After FL Surgeon Removes Wrong Organ: Attorney

FLORIDA — The lawyer of the wife of a 70-year-old Alabama man who died during surgery in Okaloosa County last month said a Florida surgeon removed the wrong organ.

William Bryan and his wife, Beverly, were visiting their rental property in the Panhandle when he experienced pain on his left side, attorney Joe Zarzaur said in a news release. He was admitted into Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital for spleen abnormalities.

Though the family was reluctant to move ahead with surgery while in Florida, Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, general surgeon, and Dr. Christopher Bacani, chief medical officer, told them that Bryan could face “serious consequences” if he left the hospital, according to Zarzaur.

Shaknovsky performed a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy Aug. 21 on Bryan.

During the surgery, he removed the patient’s liver, causing “catastrophic blood loss resulting in death,” Zarzaur said.

“My husband died while helpless on the operating room table by Dr. Shaknovsky,” his wife said. “I don’t want anyone else to die due to his incompetence at a hospital that should have known or knew he had previously made drastic, life-altering surgical mistakes.”

The surgeon also labeled the removed liver as a “spleen,” the attorney added. After Bryan’s death, the organ was identified as his liver.

“The surgeon told Mrs. Bryan after the procedure that the ‘spleen’ was so diseased that it was four times bigger than usual and had migrated to the other side of Mr. Bryan’s body,” according to the news release. “Typical human anatomy dictates that the liver naturally exists on the opposite side of the abdominal cavity, and it is several times larger than the spleen.”

His family was later told that Bryan’s spleen, which had a small cyst, was still in his body.
Shaknovsky previously removed the wrong organ from another patient in 2023, Zarzaur said.

During this surgery, he mistakenly removed a portion of a patient’s pancreas instead of performing an intended adrenal gland resection.

That case was settled in confidence and Shaknovsky remained a surgeon at the hospital as recently as August. It’s unknown whether he still works there, the attorney said.

The Walton County Sheriff's Office told NBC News on Wednesday it is investigating Bryan's death to determine if anything criminal took place.