Florida doctor indicted and accused of removing patient’s liver instead of spleen in fatal surgery

A Florida doctor has been charged in the death of a 70-year-old man who had the wrong organ removed during surgery.

First Judicial Circuit State’s Attorney’s Office, 44-year-old Dr. He said Thomas Shaknovsky was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of second-degree manslaughter in the August 2024 death of a Muscle Shoals, Alabama, man.

He was taken into custody in Florida’s Miramar Beach on Monday morning and transported to the Walton County Jail before his arraignment on Tuesday.

Prosecutors allege that during the operation, which was scheduled for a laparoscopic splenectomy on August 21, 2024, Shaknovsky accidentally removed the victim’s liver instead of his spleen. This action led to “catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table,” a press release said.

The victim’s widow, Beverly Bryan, identified her husband, Bill Bryan, in a phone call.

“When I tell people what happened, it seems too scary to be true that this could happen,” he said. “I still have a hard time believing this happened to me. Can you imagine?”

Following the surgery, the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners issued a court order to temporarily suspend Shaknovsky’s medical license. This license was revoked by the Alabama Medical Licensing Commission that same year.

His Florida license was also suspended in 2024, and his New York license was suspended in 2025.

The court decision to suspend his license states that Shaknovsky recommended surgery after the 70-year-old patient came to the hospital at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital Emerald Coast complaining of abdominal pain and imaging “revealed a suspiciously enlarged spleen and blood in the peritoneum without active bleeding.”

According to the file, Shaknovsky advised the patient, who wanted to return home to Alabama for the next two days, to undergo surgery. According to the file, on the third day, Shaknovsky “continued to pressure” the patient, and the patient later consented.

According to the file, Shaknovsky continued the operation even if the patient had a heart attack during the surgery.

“Dr. Shaknovsky removed an organ he believed to be the spleen, but due to the shock and chaos he experienced, he was unable to accurately identify the organ,” the file said.

Following surgery, the doctor said the patient died from a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, the filing said.

The autopsy found “no evidence of splenic artery aneurysm rupture,” according to the filing. In the file, it was claimed that the patient’s “liver was missing, although his spleen and appendages were intact and in a normal position.”

A representative for Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital Emerald Coast did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The filing also accused Shaknovsky of two counts of malpractice in which a member of the board claimed led to the death of another patient.

In that case, the board accused Shaknovsky of removing part of a patient’s pancreas in May 2023 during a routine surgery that required the patient’s left adrenal gland to be removed.

The board also accused Shaknovsky of removing part of the patient’s intestine during another procedure in July 2023, causing a gastrointestinal perforation, which caused a hole in the intestine. It is stated in the file that the patient was taken to intensive care shortly after the surgery and died.

A representative of the board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2024, Shaknovsky settled a malpractice claim related to a May 2023 incident for $400,000, according to public records from the Florida Department of Health.

In 2025, Beverly Bryan filed a civil complaint against Shaknovsky, accusing the surgeon of causing her husband’s death. The outcome of the case was still awaited when Shaknovsky was detained this week.

“He would want his death to be to prevent someone else from being hurt, and I think the criminal charges that are being brought forward would do that,” Beverly Bryan said of her husband. “If we had to suffer this and he had to die, then at least no one will be hurt anymore but this man.”

Despite the accusations, Shaknovsky stated that “he has never been asked to resign or allowed to resign or had any medical staff privileges restricted or revoked in the past 10 years,” according to Florida Department of Health public records.

Shaknovsky could not be reached for comment and it is unclear whether he has retained a lawyer. The First Judicial Circuit State’s Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shaknovsky graduated from Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2009, according to public records.

This article was first published on: NBCNews.com