WALTON COUNTY, FL- A Florida doctor who caused a patient’s death by removing his liver instead of his spleen has been indicted by a Florida grand jury, Law & Crime reports.
Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, 44, was indicted for negligent manslaughter in the August 2024 death of William Bryan, 70, a Navy veteran from Alabama who was in Florida spending time at his vacation property, the Watson County Sheriff’s Office said.
The indictment came after what was described as an “extensive investigation” by the sheriff’s office, with prosecutors concluding that Shaknovsky’s negligent actions in the operating room “constituted criminal conduct under Florida law.” Shaknovsky was arrested on Monday and incarcerated in the Walton County jail on a $75,000 bond.
As a result of the botched surgery, Shaknovsky’s medical license was suspended in both Florida and Alabama. Despite that, he continued to practice medicine for the United States military, said Attorney Joe Zarzaur, who represents the victim’s family in a civil suit filed last year to Law & Crime.
“The military system is not tied to any particular state, and I guess he has figured out a way to continue practicing medicine and not disclose what’s going on in his civilian life,” he said.
Zarzaur said Bryan’s widow is thankful that criminal charges have been filed, which should lead to the suspension of his ability to practice medicine everywhere. He called Shaknovsky “as careless as they come.”
“You can’t accidentally take out someone’s liver,” he said. “And the reason you can’t accidentally take out somebody’s liver is that it has more connection points than most any other organ in the body. So when you take out the liver, you have to basically dissect it out carefully, because it has so many different connection points that nobody, even a brand new surgeon, would not know they’re taking out the liver.”
According to ChatGPT, the liver is located in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen and is the largest internal organ. The spleen, meanwhile, is located in the left upper quadrant behind the stomach and is much smaller than the liver. It’s something a high school biology student would understand.
During a deposition that lasted for nine hours, Shaknovsky continues to deny that he removed Bryan’s liver instead of the spleen, even though he had time after surgery to examine what he removed, Zarzaur said.
“So if he didn’t have the intent to take it out during the operation, he certainly knew what he took out was the liver after the operation, and still reported it as a spleen,” Zarzaur continued.
Initially, it wasn’t certain that criminal charges would be brought forth if investigators were unable to convince experts to come forward to say that what Shaknovsky did was criminal, Zarzaur said.
“I thought that was a real possibility and I was preparing my client for such, but thankfully that did not happen,” he continued.
In September 2024, the Florida Department of Health filed an emergency order to suspend Shaknovsky’s license, concluding that he made “repeated egregious surgical errors resulting in significant patient harm.”
“The grand jury has spoken, and our responsibility is to ensure the charges are carried out through the proper legal process. Our thoughts remain with the victim’s family and their unspeakable loss,” Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said in a statement. “We are committed to seeing this case through with the professionalism and integrity our community expects.”
A police report said that Shaknovsky arrived an hour late for the surgical procedure and that he changed it from a laparoscopic procedure to an open one, ostensibly to mitigate visibility issues. The procedure incurred major complications, and Shaknovsky’s decisions proved fatal for Bryan.
After “fir[ing] a stapling device blindly” into the victim’s abdomen, Shaknovsky removed an organ that he “believed” was his spleen, but was actually his liver. According to the suspension order, the operating room staff noticed Shaknovsky’s error during the procedure and also observed him trying to cover it up. There was no indication that anyone attempted to intervene.
Florida’s Department of Health said that Shaknovsky’s account of the incident contained “deceptive and untrue statements,” and that he directed a staffer to purposely and incorrectly label the victim’s liver as a “spleen” as it was transported to a pathology lab.
The department further said that by failing to acknowledge his error, he demonstrated either a “lack of clinical understanding” or a “lack of integrity,” and predicted, “his reckless conduct is likely to continue.”
The order also addressed another botched procedure on another patient, whereby he allegedly removed pancreatic tissue instead of an adrenal gland that had a mass on it. In that case, the error caused the patient to suffer “long-term, permanent harm.”
The civil suit was filed by Bryan’s widow in a Florida state court last year, naming Shaknovsky and Sacred Heart Emerald Coast (ASHEC) hospital as defendants.
The Bryans were spending time at their rental property in Okaloosa County, Florida when William Bryan suddenly developed pain in his left flank. They went to Ascension Sacred Heart, where Bryan was admitted for tests to assess an abnormal spleen.
Medical staff told Bryan that he needed immediate surgery to prevent serious complications, and agreed to an emergency laparoscopic splenectomy.
The court filing spelled out the surgical error and Shaknovsky’s response to it:
During this procedure, Defendant Shaknovsky removed Mr. Bryan’s liver and asked for it to be labeled as a “spleen.”
Defendant Shaknovsky’s removal of Mr. Bryan’s liver caused Mr. Bryan’s death.
Defendant Shaknovsky did not admit that he had removed Mr. Bryan’s liver.
Instead, Defendant Shaknovsky maintained to himself and others around him that he had removed Mr. Bryan’s spleen and that Mr. Bryan’s cause of death was a splenic artery aneurysm. He repeated this assertion over and over to numerous staff and other physicians who looked at him like he was crazy.
Medical records included with exhibits showed numerous references to Bryan’s “spleen,” then later his “extensive blood loss,” blood transfusion, and eventually, cardiac arrest. Meanwhile, the corresponding pathology report showed that what was labeled as the victim’s spleen was in fact his liver.
This was not Shaknovsky’s first time making a mistake that took a life, according to the court filing.
He allegedly caused another patient’s death the year before when he accidentally perforated that patient’s bowel during a gallbladder removal, forcing him to take a leave of absence following that incident.
“By October of 2023, Defendant ASHEC and Defendant Ascension knew or should have known that they had a consistently negligent and dangerous surgeon on its staff who needed to be permanently stripped of his surgical privileges in order to protect the community,” the filing asserted.
In the following year, Shaknovsky was involved in several other botched surgeries, including hernia surgery involving the wrong site.
Despite all the warnings, the hospital “allowed Defendant Shaknovsky to continue operating in an unrestricted fashion, in part, because he was making the hospital money,” the plaintiffs alleged.
The family is seeking unspecified damages in excess of $50,000.
In a statement, Zarzaur said:
“This heartbreaking loss has devastated the family of William Bryan, and we are seeking justice for this senseless tragedy. Dr. Shaknovsky’s failure to meet the accepted standard of care and Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast’s involvement in the alleged cover-up have caused irreparable harm, and no family should have to endure such grief due to medical negligence. We are committed to holding these actors accountable for their actions.”
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