‘INCOMPETENCE’

Man Died After Surgeon Removed Wrong Organ, Family Says

A lawyer for the man’s family alleges that the Florida-based doctor has a history of “wrong-site surgery.”

A 70-year-old Alabama man is dead after a surgeon allegedly removed the wrong organ during an operation at a Florida hospital. The Guardian reported that William Bryan, 70, was admitted to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast hospital in Walton County over concerns about his spleen after experiencing sharp pains on the left side of his body. Bryan and his wife, Beverly, were reluctant to go through with the procedure, according to a family lawyer. However, the hospital allegedly insisted, and so surgeon Thomas Shaknovsky proceeded with a hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy procedure on Aug. 21, 2024. During the operation, the family’s lawyer alleges that the doctor removed Bryan’s liver and “transected the major vasculature supplying the liver, causing immediate and catastrophic blood loss resulting in death.” After the surgery, Shaknovsky reportedly told Beverly that Bryan’s “spleen” was so diseased that it had increased in size and migrated to the other side of his body. She said in a statement, “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.”