Florida doctor charged in death of patient who had wrong organ removed during surgery
A Florida doctor accused of removing the wrong organ during surgery and allegedly causing a patient’s death is facing a manslaughter charge, according to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky, of Destin, was arrested Monday in the 2024 death of 70-year-old William Bryan of Alabama, the Office of the State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit announced in a statement.
According to investigators, Shaknovsky was performing a scheduled laparoscopic splenectomy on Bryan and allegedly removed his liver instead of his spleen, “resulting in catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table.”
The sheriff’s office said a Walton County grand jury found there was probably cause to charge Shaknovsky with second-degree manslaughter, citing his actions in the operating room “constituted criminal conduct under Florida law.”
“Our duty is to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor,” Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said. “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.
William Bryan and his wife, Beverly Bryan, were in Florida in August 2024 to work on their rental condo when the Navy veteran began to feel a sharp pain on his side, NBC affiliate WTLV-TV reported. His wife took him to the emergency room at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital in Miramar Beach and a subsequent CT scan showed a mass on his spleen, Beverly told the outlet.
William was admitted to the hospital where she says Dr. Shaknovsky told them her husband needed surgery.
“I told him that we didn’t want to have surgery in Florida that we wanted to go home,” Beverly said at the time. “He said, ‘well, you can’t make it home with him. He’ll bleed to death. He’s bleeding inside.’”
Bryan died on the operating table. Beverly alleges that after the surgery, Shaknovsky told her Bryan had a splenic aneurysm that had ruptured and that’s what had caused him to bleed to death. However, an autopsy revealed his spleen was intact but his liver was gone.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Beverly said.
A month later, Florida’s Surgeon General issued a 21-page emergency order suspending Shaknovsky’s osteopathic physician license. His Alabama license was also suspended in 2024 and his New York license was suspended in 2025. In the filing from the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners seeking Shaknovsky’s license suspension, Shaknovsky is accused of two other instances of malpractice, one of which the board alleges led to the death of another patient.
In that case, the board accused Shaknovsky of removing part of a patient’s pancreas during a routine surgery in May 2023, in which the patient was supposed to have their left adrenal gland removed. The board also accused Shaknovsky of removing part of a patient’s intestine during another procedure in July 2023, causing a gastrointestinal perforation.
Shaknovsky graduated from Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2009, according to public records from the Florida Department of Health. Despite the accusations against him, his profile notes that he has “never been asked to or allowed to resign from or had any medical staff privileges restricted or revoked within the last 10 years by a health maintenance organization, pre-paid health clinic, nursing home, licensed hospital or ambulatory surgical center.”
Shaknovsky is currently being held at the Walton County Jail and awaiting his first appearance in court on Tuesday. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
It was not known if Shaknovsky had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
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